I was engaged in other researches, and knew that no little labour
must be devoted to the work and to its publication, and that some
controversy might be expected. Mr. Billings, however, with his
characteristic caution and modesty, declined. His hands, he said, were
full of other work, and he had not specially studied the microscopic
appearances of Foraminifera or of mineral substances. It was finally
arranged that I should prepare a description of the fossil, which
Sir William would take to London, along with Dr. Hunt's notes, the
more important specimens, and lists of the structures observed in
each. Sir William was to submit the manuscript and specimens to Dr.
Carpenter, and also to Prof T. Rupert Jones, in the hope that these
eminent authorities would confirm our conclusions, and bring forward
new facts which I might have overlooked or been ignorant of Sir William
saw both gentlemen, who gave their testimony in favour of the organic
and foraminiferal character of the specimens; and Dr. Carpenter in
particular gave much attention to the subject, and worked out the
structure of the delicate tubulation of the surfaces of the laminæ or
cell-walls, which I had not distinguished previously, through a curious
accident as to specimens. Mr. Lowe had been sent back to the Ottawa
to explore, and just before Sir William's departure had sent in some
specimens from a new locality at Petite Nation, similar in general
appearance to those from Grenville, which Sir William took with him
unsliced to England. These showed in a perfect manner the tubuli of
the primary cell-wall, which I had in vain tried to resolve in the
Grenville specimens, and which I did not see until after they had been
detected by Dr. Carpenter in London. Dr. Carpenter thus contributed in
a very important manner to the perfecting of the investigations begun
in Canada, and on him fell the greater part of their illustration and
defence,[23] in so far as Great Britain is concerned.
[Footnote 23: In papers by Dr. Carpenter, subsequently referred to.
Prof. Jones published an able exposition of the facts in the _Popular
Science Monthly_.]
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