Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 25.djvu/212

 matrix. It was only under a favourable light that these smaller tubes were visible, as the calcite in them was of the same crystalline character as the surrounding network. This was conclusive evidence of the structure not arising from the mere infiltration of one chemical substance into another. Moreover such an infiltration would have passed between the cleavage-planes, instead of running across them as the Canal-system does. When cut, some specimens had given out a strong odour of musk, which they to some extent still retained ; this, again, seemed to be evidence of organic origin. The manner in which the authors speak of the Canal-system and of the nummuline layer satisfied him that they have depended on the evidence of decalcified specimens, and have not made themselves sufficiently acquainted with the appearances presented by transparent sections. If they had done so, they could not have continued to assert that the nummuline layer is nothing else than chrysotile — the characters of the two being totally different. Recent Foraminifera, when decalcified, exhibited precisely the same asbestiform layer round the chamber-cast as the fossil Eozoon. In the deep seas of the present day, at various depths and temperatures, was a large extension of sarcodic substance ; and in this there were Rhizopods with and without shells, but of similar low structure; and such forms might have continued in existence through any length of time, so that the occurrence of Eozoon so far down as Jurassic times could afford no matter for surprise. He should not be astonished even if such a structure as Eozoon were found in deep-sea dredgings of the present day.

The President mentioned the Bathybius, which he has found with coccoliths and other forms in deep-sea soundings. In some newer specimens of Atlantic mud given him by Dr. Carpenter he had found Bathybius forming a sort of network, somewhat similar to the Plasmodia of botanists. He could not call it either plant or animal. It was, however, a living substance, susceptible of apparently indefinite growth. This removed one of the difficulties in believing in the wide extension of the Eozoon. The Hydrographer to the Admiralty had since sent him the soundings taken by Captain Shortland in ' The Hydra.' In soundings from 2800 fathoms in the Arabian Gulf Bathybius was plentiful ; and over an area 7000 miles long the same organism occurred in abundance. He agreed in thinking it possible that such organisms might have gone on living from the earliest geological times.

In answer to Prof. Ramsay, the President stated that the soundings in which the Bathybius occurs alone, as analyzed by Dr. Frankland, contained 1-1/2 per cent, of nitrogenous organic matter.