Part 1

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis displayed as Italics and =Bold=.

RELICS OF PRIMEVAL LIFE

+------------------------------------------------------+ | WORKS BY | | | | Sir J. William Dawson, | | | | LL.D., F.R.S., etc. | | | | =Eden Lost and Won.= Studies of the Early History | | and Final Destiny of Man, as taught in Nature and | | Revelation. 12mo, cloth $1.25 | | | | The work is in two parts. Part I. considers the | | physical and historical probabilities respecting the | | authorship and authority of the Mosaic books. Part | | II. treats of man and nature, fallen and restored. | | | | =The Historical Deluge.= Its relation to Scientific | | Discovery and to Present Questions. 12mo, boards .25 | | | | "It is a very satisfactory statement. Will be very | | useful."--The New York Observer. | | | | =The Meeting=Place of Geology and History.= | | Illustrated. Lowell Lectures, 1894, 12mo, cloth 1.25 | | | | "We commend these lectures heartily to all who | | are anxious to have a clear understanding of this | | important discussion."--The Living Church. | | | | =Modern Ideas of Evolution as related to Revelation | | and Science.= Sixth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. | | 12mo, cloth 1.50 | | | | "Dr. Dawson is himself a man of eminent judicial | | temper, a widely read scholar, and a close, profound | | thinker, which makes the blow he deals the Evolution | | hypothesis all the heavier. We commend it to our | | readers as one of the most thorough and searching | | books on the subject yet published."--The Christian | | at Work. | | | | =The Chain of Life in Geological Time.= A sketch of | | the Origin and Succession of Animals and Plants. | | Illustrated. Third and Revised Edition. 12mo, | | cloth 2.00 | | | | =Egypt and Syria.= Their Physical Features in | | Relation to Bible History. Second Edition, Revised | | and Enlarged. With many Illustrations. "By-Paths of | | Bible Knowledge." Vol. VI. 12mo, cloth. 1.20 | | | | ---------------- | | | | =Fleming H. Revell Company= | | | | New York: 112 Fifth Ave. | | Chicago: 63 Washington St, | | Toronto: 140 & 142 Yonge St.| +------------------------------------------------------+

Two divisions or branches of a large specimen collected by Mr. E. T. Chambers in the Ordovician of Lake St. John. (See Appendix D.)

RELICS OF PRIMEVAL LIFE

BEGINNING OF LIFE IN THE DAWN OF GEOLOGICAL TIME

SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON LL.D., F.R.S., Etc.

WITH SIXTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

1897

The substance of a Course of Lectures on Pre-Cambrian Fossils delivered in the Lowell Institute, Boston, in November, 1895.

AUGUSTUS LOWELL Esq

_Vice-President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Trustee of the Lowell Institute_

AS THE WISE AND LIBERAL ADMINISTRATOR OF A NOBLE

ENDOWMENT FOR THE ADVANCEMENT AND DIFFUSION

OF KNOWLEDGE

THIS WORK IS DEDICATED

WITH MUCH RESPECT AND ESTEEM

BY THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

IT is now more than thirty-five years since the announcement was made of the discovery of remains supposed to indicate the existence of animal life in the oldest rocks known to geologists. It was hailed with enthusiasm by some as "opening a new era in geological science"; but was regarded with scepticism by others, in consequence of the condition and mineral character of the supposed fossil, and because of the great interval in time between the oldest animal remains previously known and these new claimants for recognition. Since that time, many new facts have been learned, and the question has been under almost continuous discussion and debate, with various fortunes, in different quarters.

The author was associated with the original discovery and description of these supposed earliest traces of life; and has since, in the intervals of other work, devoted much time to further exploration and research, the results of which have been published from time to time in the form of scientific papers. He has also given attention to the later discoveries which have tended to fill up the gap between the Laurentian fossil and its oldest known successors.

In 1875 he endeavoured to sum up in a popular form what was then known, in a little volume named "The Dawn of Life," which has long been out of print; and in 1893 the matter was referred to in a chapter of his work "Salient Points in the Science of the Earth." In 1895 he was invited to present the subject to a large and intelligent audience in a course of lectures delivered in the Lowell Institute, Boston; and the success which attended these lectures has induced him to reproduce them in the present work, in the hope that inquiries into the Dawn of Life may prove as fascinating to general readers as to those who prosecute them as a matter of serious work, and that their presentation in this form may stimulate further research in a field which is destined in the coming years to add new and important domains to the knowledge of life in the early history of the earth.

Hypotheses respecting the introduction and development of life are sufficiently plentiful; but the most scientific method of dealing with such questions is that of searching carefully for the earliest remains of living beings which have been preserved to us in the rocky storehouses of the earth.

There are many earnest labourers in this difficult field, and it will be the object of the writer in the following pages to do justice to their work as far as known to him, as well as to state his own results.

J. W. D.