176 Mr. H. J. Carter on 



such is the only remark that accompanied them, which is 

 extracted from the late Dr. F. Stoliczka's diary, made on the 

 " 17th iJune, 1874," barely two days before his death, for 

 whicli he was then sickening (' Scientific Results of the 

 Second Yarkand Mission,' published by order of the Govern- 

 ment of India, Calcutta, 1879). Would that he had lived 

 to have written more ! 



Obs. With only half the fossil it may at first appear pre- 

 sumptuous to endeavour to establish a new genus, but with 

 the above data it will appear to those who are acquainted 

 with the structure and composition of Loftusia i^ersica to be 

 otherwise ; at the same time, if this be objected to, then we 

 must regard the description as " provisional," for under no 

 other circumstances can the facts connected with this appa- 

 rently unique specimen be recorded. 



It may be learnt from the above statements that the fossil 

 is composed to a great extent of foraminiferal detritus or sea- 

 bottom, and thus it may be assumed that the Foraminifera 

 were taken in by the animal for nutritive purposes ; while the 

 whole is totally different both in general form and internal 

 structure from any species of Foraminifera that has been made 

 known. 



Comparing its composition with that of Loftusia persica, it 

 will be found that the two are almost identical ; thus, setting 

 aside the misleading resemblance to Alveolina &c. in outward 

 form and the " lamino-spiral " development in Loftusia 

 persica^ we have absolutely nothing left to identify it with 

 Alveolina or any other evident form of Foraminifera ; while 

 the difference in size of the largest recorded specimen, viz. 3 

 in. long by 1^ in. broad, so far exceeds that of any known 

 specimen of the Foraminifera, that it alone is almost sufficient 

 to negative such a supposition. Hence there can be no 

 objection on this score to allying the Karakoram fossil to 

 that of Persia, viz. Loftusia persica, on which account it 

 becomes necessary to create a new family for Loftusia 

 persica and Stoliczhiella Theohaldi that may be termed 

 " Loftusiidffi." 



It is not my object here to go at length into the minute 

 structure of Loftusia persica, for that has been described and 

 illustrated by Mr. H. B. Brady, in the ' Philosophical Trans- 

 actions ' for 1869 (vol. clix. p. 739), in a way which does not 

 require repetition ; but there are one or two points in con- 

 nexion with 8. Theobaldi which are of great interest as bearing 

 not only uj)on the identity of composition in Loftusia persica 

 and Stoliczhiella Theohaldi^ but on the propagative elements 

 of the Foraminifera generally ; 1 allude more particularly to 



