345 



for the twelvemonth ensuing ; or they could, if desired, pay 15s. at once 

 to carry them up to the end of 1887. 



Mr. Gerald Sturt gave a brief resume of his paper " On Some New 

 Diatoms from Oamaru, New Zealand,'' the paper itself being of too 

 technical a character to be interesting to the meeting if read in extenso. 

 The material from which the diatoms had been obtained was some earth 

 imported from New Zealand under the name of kaolin. This was, however, 

 erroneously applied, kaolin being really disintegrated felspar. The earth 

 in question came from Oamaru, its geological age had not yet been de- 

 termined, but this question was under consideration, and further details 

 were expected. The deposit bore a very remarkable similarity to the 

 Cambridge Barbadoes earth, which produced so many famous forms, but 

 the exact locality of which could not now be identified. It also resembled 

 some earth from Simbirsk, in Russia, and another deposit at Briinn, the 

 resemblance being so close that the forms found in one could not be dis- 

 tinguished from those taken from the others. It was also remarkable that 

 several of the forms were still found living in the Indian Ocean. The 

 deposit was an exceedingly rich one, and had already been found to contain 

 40 species entirely new to science. 



The Chairman said they were very much obliged to Mr. Sturt for his 

 very interesting paper, interesting not only to the members of the Club as 

 microscopists, but also to geologists. He only regretted that so valuable a 

 communication should have been made before so small an audience. 



Mr. Karop said it was, of course, rather premature to discuss the paper 

 without having the whole of it before them, but it was very interesting to 

 find evidences of a sort of evolution of diatoms going on ; if this could be 

 traced in the case of NaviculcB, it would, undoubtedly, be most interesting. 



A member inquired if he rightly understood Mr. Sturt to say that there 

 were particular forms which had only been found in these deposits ? 



Mr. Sturt said this was so ; they had been found by Greville in the 

 original Cambridge Barbadoes earth, but had not been found since, except 

 in the deposits mentioned. 



Mr. Karop asked if the Polycistince were as remarkable in this earth as 

 in that from Barbadoes ? 



Mr. Sturt said that the Polyeisiince were rather conspicuous by their 

 absence, being very few comparatively. There was a large quantity of very 

 curious sponge spicules, but Radiolaria were very scarce indeed. 



The Chairman thought there were some points in connection with the 

 subject which were of very considerable interest, especially the facts that 

 the forms "were in so many cases the same as those in the Barbadoes earth, 

 and' that other forms were the same as those now found living in the 

 Indian Ocean. This was an observed fact, that forms which were found 

 both in the living and fossil states were always such as were widely dis* 

 tributed, so that the circumstance that these were found in Barbadoes, 

 Russia, and New Zealand, and also living in the Indian Ocean, was exactly 

 what experience would lead them to expect. It would be extremely in- 

 teresting to know, however, what was the geological age of the deposits 



Journ. Q, M. C, Series II., No. 16. d d 



