On Eocene Shells from Nigeria. 83 



Native names: in Yerghura "Ohium" ; in Hausa, " Rema." 

 — (7. B. Gosling. 



This remarkably coloured dassy is quite unlike any species 

 known to me. Its nearest ally is probably P. Kerstingi^ 

 Matschie *, from E. Togoland, but that has wholly black 

 backs to its ears, and the hairs of its dorsal spot are dark for 

 their basal halves. 



VIII. — Eocene Shells from Nigeria. 

 By R. BuLLEN Newton, F.G.S. 



[Plate v.] 



The names of the shells about to be described in this paper 

 have already been published in list-form by the present 

 writer t in ' The Geographical Journal ' for November 1904, 

 accompanied by a digest of the literature bearing upon the 

 palajontology of Nigeria and adjacent territories. 



The specimens were collected by Colonel G. S. McD. 

 Elliotj R.E., and Captain Lelean, R.A.M.C, of the Anglo- 

 French Niger-Chad Boundary Commission, atKalfu-Tamaskie 

 andGaradimi, in Northern Nigeria, and subsequently presented 

 to the Geological Department of the British Museum by those 

 officers. 



A few general points of interest connected with these shell- 

 remains are referred to in the following quotation, from the 

 article in ' The Geographical Journal ' : — 



** Some of these specimens are preserved as limestone-casts, 

 among them being several Lucina, which I have called 

 L. cf. Alenardi 2^n^ L, ci'.pharaonls, and which represent most 

 probably the forms referred to in Lapparent's papers as L. cf. 

 gigantea. All three species, however, are typically Eocene, 

 and have mostly been recorded from Egypt or Southern 

 European countries. The specimens of Alectryonia cf. Mar- 

 tinsi, originally described troin India by J. de C. Sowerby 

 under the name of Ostrea orbicularis, help to support the 

 theory that this ancient sea had an extensive eastward direc- 

 tion in Eocene times. The peculiar Ostreiform genus Vulsella 



* SB. Ges. Nat. Berl. 1899, p. o9. 



t li. Bullen Newton, " A Notice of some Marine Tertiary Fossils from 

 Northern Nigeria, collected by Colonel G. S. McD. Elliot, R.E., and 

 Captain Lelean, II.A.M.C, of the Anglo-French Boundary Commission," 

 The Geographical Journal, 1904, vol. xxiv. pp. 522-524. 



G* 



