119 



interpretation of these structural phenomena be correct, it follows 

 that the quinqueloculine plan of growth is the primitive type of 

 the group, whilst the triloculine and biloculine varieties represent 

 later modifications of the primitive form in its successive stages of 

 evolution. 



FORAMINIFERA IX BOULDER CLAY. 



What promises to have an important bearing on the theory of 

 the formation of Boulder Clay in the Northern Hemisphere is 

 the discovery of Foraminifera in the glacial deposits of Ireland, 

 Scotland, England, Denmark and other Continental countries. 

 As far back as 1879, Mr. Joseph Wright, of Belfast, began an 

 examination of the Boulder Clay for Foraminifera, and has 

 summarised his latest results in two papers published in the 

 Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow for 1894 and 

 1895. In almost every instance in which he examined the 

 unstratitied Till of Ireland and Scotland, he found Foraminifera 

 present in the material. The shells, which in the majority of 

 cases were rare, were found free from either weathering or 

 abrasion, and had evidently lived and died in situ. It would 

 have been of great interest if Mr. Wright had indicated at what 

 height above the sea the samples were taken from, and whether 

 the Boulder Clay of high altitudes carried the same evidences of 

 foraminiferal life as the Clay at lower levels. The attention of 

 other investigators having been called to these occurrences, Mr. 

 T. Mellard Reade * has been successful in finding Foraminifera 

 in the Boulder Clay of England. Dr. Madsen f has made a 

 similar discovery in Denmark, and Johannes Korn X ll1 Germany. 

 The unstratified Till has been hitherto generally considered as a 

 moraine profunde, but if the evidences now adduced be confirmed 

 as a feature pertaining to the Till in general, it will prove 

 beyond question that it has been laid down under marine con- 

 ditions. 



THE DETERMINATION OF LOCAL FAUN.E. 



The recent work done among the Foraminifera in determina- 

 tion of local fauna? commands a moments notice. In the lamented 

 death of my friend and frequent helper (Henry B. Brady, F.R.S.) 

 in 1891, the most conspicuous British authority on the Foram- 

 inifera was removed from us. His death left a gap in the British 

 ranks that has not been adequately filled by any one particular 

 worker in this department of natural history, but there are not 

 a few whose labors are worthy of honorable mention. The 

 monograph on " The Foraminifera of the Crag," which was begun 



* Proc. Liverpool Geo. Soc, 1896. 

 t Middelelser Fra Dansk. Geologisk Forening, 1895. 

 t Ueber Foraminiferen in Glacialthonen. Xeus Jahrbuch fur Mineral, 

 Geol. unci Palaontol. Stuttgart, 1895. 



