Miscellaneous. i38o 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Bcmarls on the Occurrence of Diplommatina in Trinidad. 

 By 11. J. Lechmeee Guppx *. 



About twenty years ago Mr. Thomas Bland, F.G.S., of New York, 

 informed mo that a laud-shell of the genus Diphmmatina had been 

 found by Mr. Theodore Gill in Trinidad. The locality of its occur- 

 rence (I believe he only obtained a single example) was a spot near 

 the Maracas waterfall. On search I succeeded in finding at first a 

 few, and afterwards more numerous examples. I also found the 

 shell in other parts of the island, but never in any place unless a 

 portion of undisturbed forest occurred there. 



The shell in question was considered by Pfeiffertobe Diplommatina 

 Huttoni. The original D. Huttoni was found on the lower slopes of 

 the Western Himalayas, its range extending at the outside not more 

 than two or three hundred miles along the base of the mountains. 

 This shell has never been found in any other locality. Some doubts 

 have arisen as to the actual specific identity of the Trinidad shell 

 and that from the Himalayas ; and hence in 1872 I proposed the 

 name occldentalis for our species. The question was taken up and 

 very ably treated by Mr. Blanford in 18G8. 



In 1881, Mr. Sylvester Devenish, late Surveyor-General of Trini- 

 dad, forwarded to me for examination a specimen of rock from Punta 

 Gorda, a peninsula on the southern side of the north-western arm of 

 Trinidad. This peninsula juts out into the Gulf of Paria, and is 

 about two miles long by less than half a mile wide. 



Mr. Devenish's account of the specimen forwarded by him is as 

 follows : — "I got it by breaking a curious hollow piece of limestone 

 coming from one of the western points of Point Gourd." The 

 specimen in question is a light red or pinkish breccia, consisting of 

 pieces of limestone and shells cemented together by calcareous 

 matter. The shells are numerous and in good preservation, but 

 difficult of extraction, the matrix being hard and the shells brittle. 

 The shells are referable to the following species : — 



Stenogyra octona, Chemn. 



CylindreUa trlnitarla, Pfeiff. 



Hella: bactricola, Guppy. 



Cistida arijjensls, Guppy. 



Heliclna nemoralis, Guppy. 



Dljjlommatlna occidentalism Guppy. 

 It is specially the occurrence of the latter shell which lends a 

 peculiar interest to the discovery made by Mr. Devenish. 



The assemblage of shells noticed above, as found in the cave 

 breccia of Punta Gorda, is such as (with the exception of the Steno- 

 yyra) is found in the recesses of our northern mountains, such as 

 Aripo and Oropuehe, at an elevation of from two thousand to three 

 thousand feet, and not elsewhere. These mountains are covered with 



* From the ' Proceedings of the Scientific Associatiou of Trinidad.' 

 Commuuicated by the Author. 



