220 FORAMINIFEEA IN THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE. 



ON THE OCCUEEENCE OF FORAMINIFEEA IN THE 

 CAEBONIFEEOUS LIMESTONE OF DEEBYSHIEE.* 



BY E. WILSON, F.G.S. 



The only evidence hitherto adduced of the occurrence of Foraminifera 

 in the Carboniferous Limestone of Derbyshire and Stafford is supplied 

 by two or three micro-rock-sections, belonging to Dr. Sorby, F.R.S., 

 that show the tests of three recognisable forms of that group. Very 

 lately, with the help of my friend Mr. J. H. Jennings, of Nottingham, I 

 have been able to determine a much more numerous and widely 

 spread Foraminiferal fauna in the Mountain Limestone of Derbyshire* 

 Several years ago, when geologizing in the neighbourhood of Castleton, 

 I noticed at one point (near Oxlow House, above the Winnatts) a very 

 peculiar rock in the Carboniferous Limestone, apparently a light oolitic 

 limestone containing waterworn pebbles of a more compact and darker 

 coloured limestone. Two feet six inches only of this rock were exposed, 

 but its base was not visible. The pebbles, which varied in size from a 

 pea to a bean and upwards, were usually more or less flattened, and lay 

 with their flat sides roughly parallel with the bedding. Some twelve 

 months ago Mr. Jennings made micro-sections of this rock, which, while 

 displaying the coarse oolitic and crystalline character of the matrix, and 

 the fine grained argillaceous character of the contained fragments, proved 

 of great interest to us from the fact of their disclosing the presence of 

 Foraminifera both in the oohtic rock and its pebbly contents. From 

 sections of this and other beds of limestone in the neighbourhood of 

 Castleton, we were able to determine, with certainty, the presence in these 

 rocks of three species of Foraminifera, viz. : — Valvulina palceotrochus, 

 Endothyra Bowmanni, and Archccdiscns Karreri. It then occurred to us 

 that Ticknall, (S. Derbys.,) a locality peculiar for the thick seams of 

 shale that are there interstratified with the upper beds of the Carboni- 

 ferous Limestone,* would be a favourable hunting ground for Microzoa. 

 On revisiting this spot, and examining with a lens the weathered surfaces 

 of the flakes of earthy limestone that plentifully strew the waste heaps 

 in these quarries, I was soon rewarded by finding abundant evidence of the 

 great prevalence of Foraminifera — the ground literally teeming with 

 Endothyras, Valvulinas and Textularias ; Endothyra radiata in particular 

 was excessively numerous. The result of washing down and sifting 

 the shales, and making a single section of a limestone flake, has been to 

 yield already sixteen of the forty -four known species of Carboniferous Fora- 

 minifera, and I believe that a more systematic examination of the material 

 than I have yet been able to make will somewhat amplify the list of these 

 here given. Dr. Brady, F.R.S., one of the highest authorities and author of 

 the monograph in the Palseontographical Society's publications on the 

 Carboniferous and Permian Foraminifera, has very kindly determined 



* Read before the Natural Science Section of the Nottingham Literary and 

 Philosophical Society, 7th April, 1880. 



+ These are the same beds as those desoribed by me on a former occasion as con- 

 taining the remains of a varied piscine fauna. (Ante page 172.) 



