PREBEND. 333 PRE-CAMBRIAN FORMATIONS. Drebendaries in residence are by law styled canons, but the holders of disendowed prebendal stalls are still known as prebendaries. PREBLE, preb'l, Edwabd (1761-1807). An American naval officer. He was born in Port- land, Me., ran away from home in 1777, joined a privateer, and soon afterwards entered the Massachusetts marine as a midshipman on board the Protector. In 1779 he was captured and imprisoned on the prison-ship Jersey in Xew York harbor; but was soon released, and until the close of the war served on the ^Vinihrop. While attached to this vessel, he boarded with only 14 men a British brig in Penobscot harbor, Maine, and took her out in tlie face of a battery. When the United States Xay was organized, in 1798, he was one of the first to be commissioned as lieutenant, and in 1799 was promoted to the rank of captain. In the same year, while in com- mand of the Essex, lie convoyed from Batavia a fleet of merchant vessels. In Jlay, 1803, he was put in command of the squadron fitted out against the Barbarv' Powers. Arriving off Tangiers in Oc- tober, he forced the Sultan of iloroeco to renew the treaty of 1786 (see B.RB.RT Powers, War.s WITH THE ) . and then cruised for some time in the vicinity of Tripoli, which port he kept closely blockaded for several months. On .July 2.5, 1804, his fleet then consisting of a frigate, three brigs, three schooners, two bomb-vessels, and six gun- boats, he attacked the defenses of Tripoli and the Tripolitan fleet with great vigor, captured three gim-boats, and sank three more. In five subsequent attacks on August 3d. August 7th. August 24th. August 29th, and September 3d, he inflicted considerable damage with small loss to himself, but on September 10th was super- seded in his command by Commodore Samuel I5ar- ron, who soon concluded a satisfactory treaty of peace with the Bey. Returning to the United States, Preljle received a medal and a vote of thanks from Congress, and in 1806 was urged by President .Jefferson to enter the Cabinet as Secre- tary of the Xa'y. but declined on account of failing health, and in 1807 died of consumption at Portland. PREBLE, George Henry (1816-8.5K An American naval officer, born at Portland. Me. He entered the United States Xa^y as a midship- man in 1835. and during the war with Mexico participated in the operations along the Ciulf coast of that country. In 1853 he was assigned to the Miirrrhiiiinn. one of the fleet with which Commodore ilatthew C. Perry made his visit to Japan, and while in the Far East he was sent on an expedition to punish the Chinese pirates. During the early part of 1862 he commanded the gun-boat Katahdin and participated in Farragut's operations against Xew Orleans. He was pro- moted to the rank of commander in .July, 1862, and while he was commanding the Oneida off Mo- bile his blockade was broken by the Confederate cruiser Orelo or Florida. For this be was dis- missed from the service until it was learned that the Florida owed her escape solely to her superior speed. Preble was then reinstated. He com- manded the .SViiHf Louis in European waters dur- ing the greater part of 1863 and 1864. was then ■ ordered home, and was placed in command of the fleet brigade which cooperated with General Sher- man's army. He was chief of staff of the Xorth Pacific Squadron in 1868-70, commandant of the Philadelphia navy yard in 1873-75, and com- manding officer of the South Pacific Station in 1877-78. In 1876 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and two years later retired from the service. In the latter part of his life he devoted considerable attention to historical sub- jects, contributed frequently to the Xetc England Historical and Genealogical Register and to the United Service Magazine, and published: A His- tory of the Flag of the United States of America and of the Saval and Yacht Club Signals, Seals, and Arms, and the Principal Sational Songs of the United States (1880) ; and A Chronological History of the Origin and Development of Steam yavigution (1883). PRE-CAMBRIAN FORMATIONS. A term usually applied to all formations which are older than those containing the Olenellus fauna of the Cambrian period. The reason for applying such a general name to this series of rocks is that the Pre-C'ambrian strata are often so higlily meta- morphosed, and devoid of organic remains, that their stratigraphic relations are indistinct, and it is therefore impossible to assign them an exact position in the geologic scale. The Pre-C'ambrian rocks consist in general of: ( 1 ) A great series of more or less highly meta- morphosed igneous and sedimentary strata, such as gneisses, schists, slates, quartzites. crystalline limestones, etc. ; ( 2 ) igneous rocks but slightly altered; (3) recognizable sedimentary rocks, which in rare cases contain fossils. In addition to the intense metamorphism which some of these" rocks have undergone, they are often interfolded and much broken by faults. The mere fact that rocks are highly metamorphosed, however, does not determine them to be of Pre-C'ambrian age. for such changes have sometimes taken place in rocks of much later date, as in the Devonian and Carboniferous. The length of time occupied by the Pre-C'am- brian periods must always be largely a matter of speculation, but geologically it extended from the time of formation of a solid crust up to the beginning of tlie Cambrian. .Judging from the variety of forms that are found developed in as early a period as the Cambrian, and the length of time that has been required to develop the liresent fauna and flora found on the earth, the length of Pre-Cambrian time must have undoubt- edly been very great. The highly altered char- acter of the Pre-Cambrian rocks has unfortu- nately obliterated many fossil remains that were buried in the sedimentaiy strata, and it is only in the younger members of the series that dis- tinct fossils have been found. Such traces have been discovered at several localiJ:ies. notably in Xewfoundland, Canada, the Lake Superior dis- trict, the Grand CaiSon of the Colorado, and in Great Britain. The Pre-Cambrian rocks are at the present time divided into a lower system — the Archaean and an upper system termed the Algonkian. The former is sometimes also termed the basement or fundamental complex, and con- sists of igneous and highly metamorphosed rocks, so altered that their original condition is a matter of great uncertainty. Under the Algonkian are included the younger Pre-Cambrian rocks, which can usually be identified as sedimentary, al- though igneous intrusions also took place in this period. An earlier classification grouped all the Pre-Cambrian rocks as Archaean, subdividing them into a lower series called the Laurentian.
