194 
CARBONIFEROUS FORAMINIFERA OF WESTERN 
AUSTRALIA, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW 
SPECIES. 
By Water Howcuin, F.G:S. 
[Read August 6, 1895.] 
Plate X., figs. 1-8. 
Some time ago I asked Mr. H. P. Woodward, Government 
Geologist of Western Australia, if he could procure any material 
of Carboniferous age that was likely to contain microzoa. Not 
having any of the argillaceous shales on hand, he kindly sent me 
a few brachiopod shells of this age which contained a little soft 
matrix in their interiors. Small as was the amount of material 
thus obtained, it has yielded three species of foraminifera which 
are of more than ordinary interest, not only as undescribed forms, 
but they are amongst the firstfruits of an old fauna in the 
Paleontology of Australia, of which we know but little at 
present. 
The shells from which the material was gathered were obtained 
by Mr. Woodward from the Carboniferous shales of the Irwin 
River, about 200 miles north of Perth. With regard to these 
beds Mr. Woodward says—‘ The Lower Carboniferous outcrops 
upon the Irwin River, where there area series of shales, fire- 
clays, sandstones, and limestones, with coal-seams. This forma- 
tion extends north in a narrow strip to the Lyons River.”* 
The only other locality in Australia where foraminifera of this 
age are known to occur is in the Permo-Carboniferous Rocks of 
Tasmania,+ but the species of the two localities, so far as recog- 
nised, are distinct. 
The Western Australian material came to hand shortly before 
the Adelaide meeting of the Australian Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, and the writer was able to report the 
occurrence and generic positions of these foraminifera in a paper 
read before the Association on ‘‘A Census of the Fossil Foramini- . 
fera of Australia.”{ For remarks on the distinctive features of 
the Australian Carboniferous foraminifera, as compared with 
*Geolog. Mag. Dec. IV., vol. I., p. 545, Dec., 1894. 
+‘*The Occurrence of Foram. in the Permo-Carb. Rocks of Tasmania,” 
W. Howchin, Report of Fifth Meeting of Aus. Asso. for Adv. of Science, 
Adelaide, 1893, p. 344, pl. X., XI. 
Op. cit., p. 348. 
