80 



doubtedly be generally accepted by workers in this depart- 

 ment o£ natural history. 



Nine samples of material were washed and searched, in all, 

 from the Hergott bore, on which the following remarks may be 

 made : — 



Kemarks on- the Section. 



1. Surface Bed. — The surface, according to a sample sub- 

 mitted to me by Mr. Wragge, is a bed of loose sand, reddish 

 in hue, and passing from very fine particles up to a shingle of 

 small pebbles. The fragments are mostly quartz, and are for 

 the most part rounded by attrition. The quartz presents the 

 features of the transparent and milky varieties, and are often 

 stained with iron. One or two organic remains were found in 

 this sample when placed under examination. One of these was 

 the single valve of a very minute bivalve shell, much 

 weathered ; also a small concave and hemispherical body, finely 

 foraminated on its convex side ; and in addition to these a few 

 arenaceous tubular objects, the zoological character of which 

 it is very difficult to determine. The lithological features of 

 this surface bed are so widely different from the underlying that 

 it evidently represents a totally different condition of things 

 in its deposition. It may be after all only an alluvial wash, 

 with a few organic remains mixed with the gravel, these having 

 been derived from older beds. It would be interesting to 

 know the exact thickness of this surface bed, and whether its 

 parting from the underlying great silt bed is a sharply-defined 

 line, or whether the finer silt of the lower passes gradually 

 into the coarser beds that overlie it. The next sample, which 

 is marked as only fifteen feet in depth, shows the passage from 

 the one to the other at that depth to be complete. 



2. Fifteen feet from surface. — A very fine argillaceous silt 

 with a small proportion of mica. Has a compact appearance 

 in its natural state, but goes down easily in water, and then 

 swells out to several times its former bulk. The residuum 

 left after washing the material and running off the light, 

 flocculent particles, is exceedingly small, and is reduced to 

 about one-twentieth of its original weight. Although no signs 

 of organic remains could be detected in the mass before treat- 

 ment, the results obtained after washing the material were very 

 interesting. There are few objects of an organic nature 

 present in this sample except Toraminifera, a single Entomos- 

 tracan carapace and a trace of vegetable tissues making up 

 the number. The Foraminif era are represented by ten species, 

 one of which, JPulvinulina eJegans, d'Orb., has only been found 

 in the section at this depth, and there but a single specimen ; 

 the rest are all arenaceous forms. 



