298 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Strata in that locality. We have not attempted their identification, in fact it would be 

 difficult to do so as many of the specimens are casts, and others so distorted by pressure 

 and slipping as to be almost unrecognizable. In these features they bear a striking 

 resemblance to the Foraminifera from some of the Naparima beds of Trinidad. The 

 presence of Rsehakina epigona (Rzehak) among the Burdwood Bank specimens almost 

 certainly indicates that these fossils are of Upper Cretaceous age, or Lowest Eocene at 

 the latest. The specimens (with others) have been submitted to Dr W. A. Macfadyen 

 who will report upon their geological significance in a later Part. 



PREVIOUS WORK IN THE AREA 

 The Falkland Islands have a particular interest for students of the Foraminifera, 

 inasmuch as they supplied material for one of the earliest regional surveys in the litera- 

 ture of the Order. D'Orbigny in his celebrated voyage to South America (1826-34) 

 collected material in the Falkland Islands, and at many localities round the South 

 American coast from St Bias on the Patagonian coast {c. 40° 60' S) to Payta on the 

 Peruvian coast [c. 4° 07' S). We do not know much about the nature or extent of 

 the material examined. D'Orbigny himself collected shore sands; he also obtained local 

 gatherings from merchant captains, which may have been either shore sands or 

 anchor muds. We know, from indications in his Tableau Methodiqiie des Cephalopodes 

 (1826), that he derived many of his species from ballast sand {sable de delestage) 

 obtained from ships, and we can only express the pious hope that such sands were not 

 included in his South American material. Very few details as to depth are given. 

 He records with pride the taking of a sounding "fait a de {sic) grandes profondeurs" 

 in sight of land off Cape Horn. This sounding was taken at a depth of 160 m. only, with 

 a deep-sea lead, and it is stated that forty specimens of Foraminifera belonging to five 

 species were removed from the tallow of the arming. Elsewhere he records making a 

 gathering in 12-20 m. depth, and with the exception of the Cape Horn sounding, which 

 was evidently regarded as a great feat, this probably represents the limit of depth of his 

 material, a factor of some importance in connection with any survey of his work. 



After his return to France, d'Orbigny published his discoveries, including the 

 celebrated monograph on the Foraminifera of South America (1839), a work of out- 

 standing importance and deserving of study apart from its taxonomical value. Eighty- 

 one species are described and mostly figured in this work, seventy-eight of which he 

 regarded as new to science. Thirty-eight of the species were from the Falkland Islands, 

 and fourteen from the adjacent coasts of Patagonia and Cape Horn, the remainder being 

 from the Pacific coast. He naively remarks that his total of eighty-one species "sera 

 sans doute augmente lorsqu'on voudra soigneusement rechercher sur tout le littoral des 

 deux oceans," and after nearly a hundred years we are in the position to confirm his 

 forecast by presenting a list of some 435 species from the Falkland area alone. 



At great length d'Orbigny gives his views that the east and west coasts of South 

 America constitute distinct faunal areas, and that with the exception of a few species, 

 which, being of world-wide distribution, did not count, all the Foraminifera on the 



