281 



The ])rincipal deductions from the observations I liave made 

 on the Microzoic deposits of Naparima are stated in my jsaper read 

 to the Geological Society* and I do not propose now to go over the 

 same ground again. I may, however, briefly state some of those 

 conclusions namely that deep water (say somewhere about 1000 

 fathoms more or less f ) existed where Naparima now is ; that the 

 nearest land was some twenty to twenty -five miles distant from 

 thence and that that land was the Parian range that is to say the 

 northern mountain range of Venezuela then forming a continuous 

 and unbroken chain with our northern hills. We infer also that 

 the Parian range was the southei'n boundary of a mass of land 

 occupj'ing some portion of the present Caribean Sea but of what 

 extent we have not the means of judging at present. Any one 

 wishing for fuller infoi-mation on the subject can refer to my 

 paper just quoted. I may mention as matters of economic 

 importance that the use of some of the Naparima marls for the 

 manufacture of cement, and of the Argiline of the Naparima 

 Hill for polishing purposes as well as railway ballast are alluded 

 to in the paper. Some account has been given first in the 

 Geological Report and next in my paper just referred to of the 

 so called Argiline of Naparima Hill. Identifiable fossils have not 

 hitherto been found in this rock. How-ver, we are only on the 

 threshold of knowledge as regards this as well as the other 

 formations of Trinidad. Beds of different texture occur in the 

 argiline, some being more sandy in composition. In these I 

 have found very evident organic remains though I cannot yet 

 say exactly what they are. In another stratum of the same 

 rock I found two or three identifiable foraminifera, namely 

 Pidlenia and Sphaevoidina, both deep water forms. But 

 many of the other Naparima and Pointapier rocks contain a 

 great variet}^ of remarkable and interesting Microzoa and other 

 fossils. Besides the Furaminifera and Radiolaria we have some 

 small corals and polyzoa and many spines and plates of echino- 

 derms (including Holothurians, brittle-stars, common sea-stars and 

 sea-eggs,) spicules of seafans and seapens and of sponges (both 

 siliceous and calcareous). The Pointapier Ditrupa-bed contains 

 abundance of such organisms as well as coccoliths, peculiar little 

 oi'ganisms characteristically abundant in deep sea deposits ; and 

 also pretty little star-like objects figured by Jukes-Brown and 

 Harrison in their j^aper. These I have considered to belong to 



*Quart Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlviii (1892) p. 519. 



+Brady (cited by Jukes-Brown and Harrison, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 vol. >:lviii (1882) page 197) estimates the depth of water in which the 

 foramiaiferal beds of I5arbados were deposited at from 500 to 1000 fathoms. 

 The fauna of our Naparima beds is almost identical. When my paper was 

 written I had not seen Jukes-Brown and Harrison's paper and had no 

 knowledge of its contents. 



