380 CARBONIFEROUS FOSSILS. 



they were very abundant, mixed with some pieces of Silurian 

 limestone like those found by Penny and his comrades in the 

 Wellington and Queen's Channels.' 55 ' 



Many new forms of these Silurian fossils remain undescribed, 

 and some of great beauty were brought home by Captain 

 Belcher himself. At present we can only notice the carboni- 

 ferous species. 



FUSULINA HYPERBOREA (n. sp.). 

 Plate XXXVI., fig. 1-3. 



The mountain limestone has been long known to contain 

 Foraminifera of this type. One, the F. cylindrica, Fischer, is 

 characteristic of the formation in Russia, and a smaller round 

 species abounds in parts of the Caucasus. f The one found by 

 Sir E. Belcher at Depot Point is peculiar for its shape, being 

 constricted in the middle instead of fusiform ; the septa are 

 highly undulated, and the several folds touch each other so 

 closely as to look like reticulated tissue in a section. It may 

 be shortly characterized thus: 



Five-eighths of an inch wide, subcylindrical, obtuse at the 

 ends, constricted in the middle : whorls about seven or eight, 

 of which four are conspicuous and of nearly equal width. 

 Septa rather closely placed, excessively undulated (like a frill 

 or furbelow) , especially on their peripheral edge, with no plain 

 median space ; slit small, linear, on the inner margin of the 

 septum. 



We have both polished transverse and longitudinal (lb) sec- 

 tions and weathered specimens (la) of this fine and remark- 

 able species. J In the latter, where the whorls are worn down 



* I strongly suspect there is a Devonian formation also here, but 

 have not the means at present to work it out. Atrypa reticularis, with 

 Spirifer, Ortlds, and Rhynchonella, occurs in a blackish earthy lime- 

 stone in Cardigan Strait, on the coast of North Yorkshire. 



f Siluria, p. 335. 



% The common F. cylindrica, which is not half the size of the F. 

 hyperborea, is called by the Kussian peasants " petrified corn," which 

 it exactly resembles. Ours is more like an hour-glass with rounded ends. 



