104 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb., 1896. 



g. Frondicularia archiaciana can furnish, at the best, very unsatis- 

 factory evidence. Its record as a recent form depends upon the 

 occurrence of one specimen only (and that not quite typical) at Raine 

 Island, 1 and there appears to be no other record of its occurrence 

 since the Cretaceous era. 



10. In reference to the question of the depth at which the 

 Taplow Chalk was probably laid down, Mr. Hume places great stress 

 upon the occurrence together at Culebra Island of Vemeuilina pygmaa, 

 V. spinulosa, and V. triquetra ; and he states that " nowhere else do they 

 occur together." 2 V. pygmaa, however, is, as stated by Brady, "a 

 common deep-water foraminifer."^ Its geographical range extends 

 from lat. 6o° N. to the Antarctic Ice Barrier, and its bathy metrical 

 range from 129 to 3,125 fathoms. Its occurrence at Culebra Island 

 can therefore prove little. V. spinulosa and V. triquetra are recorded 

 together by Egger, in the "Gazelle" Memoir, from the neighbour- 

 hood of Mauritius, at a depth of 411 metres. 4 



We have thus dealt in detail with some of the forms cited by 

 Mr. Hume. The process might be carried further ; but we venture to 

 think that enough has been stated to show that the evidence adduced 

 by him has many weak points. We cannot refrain from again point- 

 ing out the unfortunate fact that, in bringing forward his evidence as 

 furnished by the Foraminifera, he has altogether neglected many of 

 the most characteristic of the Cretaceous forms, including nearly all 

 those of the hyaline and porcellanous groups. 



H. W. Burrows. 



R. Holland. 

 Brixton, London, S.W. 



1 Rep. Chall. Zool. ix., p. 520"; 1884. 



2 Nat. Sci., vii., p. 271, and Proc. Geol. Assoc, xiii., p. 239 ; May, 1894. 



3 Rep. Chall. Zool., ix., p. 386 ; 1884. 



1 Abhandl. k. layer. Akad. Wiss., II. Classe, xviii. (ii.), pp. 280, 281 ; 1893. 



