Brackish-water Foraminifera. 299 
Specimens have been found in the rivers Wear and Blyth 
and in the Montrose Basin, localities pertaining to the first 
section of the Table. In the Fen area examples have been 
obtained from the river Nene at Peterboro’ and from Somer- 
ton Broad. At Westport, in Ireland, and in Portree Har- 
bour, Skye, it appeared in large numbers, a circumstance in 
some measure accounted for by the comparative proximity of 
deep sea. 
Textularia sagittula, Defrance. 
Textularia sagittula, Defrance (1824), Dict. Sci. Nat. xxxii. p. 177, liii, 
P. 944; De Blainville, Malacologie, p. 370, pl. 5. fig. 5. 
Montrose Basin and Westport, Ireland ; very rare. 
Foraminifera of this genus appear to possess remarkably 
little power of adapting themselves to brackish water. The 
typical Textularia sagittula is common on our coast, even in 
very shallow situations, such as the rock-pools of the littoral 
Zone; yet we have only two instances of its occurrence in 
localities influenced by fresh water. Reference to the Table 
will show that, excepting in three columns before described as 
representing localities in which the conditions appear to be 
more nearly marine than the rest, the entire genus is notably 
absent. Even in these three gatherings the varieties found 
were amongst the rarest of the microzoa. 
Textularia variabilis, Williamson. 
T. repe variabilis, Williamson (1858), Rec. For. Gt. Br. p. 76, figs. 162, 
9, 168 
> . 
Montrose Basin and river Blyth; very rare. 
his is as far as proof goes. On the other hand, it can hardly be be- 
lieved that the thick-walled heavy specimens so common at the sea-bot- 
tom had ower of floating when fully grown. Another argument per 
DESI arl 
t the greatest depths, is sufficiently 
proved by the existence of Bathybius, which cannot be regarded in any 
other light than an actually living organism. 
ese observations are prompted y Mr. Jeffreys's note in No. 121 of 
the ‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ p. 443. 
