G. C. Crick — Belemnites from Somali-land. 297 



The guard appears to have been not very long, only very slightly 

 hastate, with a moderately elongated apex ; ventral surface with a 

 strong, rather broad furrow, extending the whole length of the guard, 

 disappearing only near the apex, a little narrower on the alveolar 

 region ; sides of the guard narrowly rounded, with dorso-lateral 

 vascular impressions, well-marked on the alveolar region, very feeble 

 on the rest ; dorsal area broadly rounded, rather flat ; angle of the 

 phragmocone 20° ; alveolar region nearly oiroular in section, the 

 post-alveolar region depressed ; siphuncle on the same side as the 

 deep groove. 



The species resembles Belemnites Tanganensis, described by 

 Futterer ' from Tanga, on the east coast of Africa, where it occurs in 

 association with Lower Oxfordian Ammonites. But Futterer's 

 species is more compressed in the alveolar region, and less depressed 

 in the post-alveolar region, than the Somali specimens. In these 

 respects the latter agree better with the specimen figured by J. de 0. 

 Sowerby as Belemnites canaliculatus, Schlotheim (=B. Grantanus, 

 D'Orb. 2 ). The alveolus is shown in one of the Somali specimens ; 

 its angle (20°) agrees with that given by Waagen for B. subhastatus, 3 

 to which species he refers the B. Grantanus, D'Orb. 



The Somali specimens in form agree with certain of the figures 

 that Oppel gives of his B. Gerardi (Pal. Mittheil., pp. 273, 296, 

 pi. Ixxxviii, figs. 1-3, particularly figs. 1 and 2), which species 

 Oppel states to be narrower and more depressed than Zieten's 

 B. subhastatus. In the explanation of the figures. Oppel adds 

 " B. Grandianus, D'Orb. MS." This possibly referred to the name 

 B. Grantanus, which D'Orbigny gave to the specimen figured by 

 Sowerby as B. canaliculatus ; and, if so, it would seem that Oppel 

 regarded B. Grantanus, D'Orb., and his own B. Gerardi, as the same 

 species, although he does not place the former name in the synonymy 

 of the latter. 



Stoliczka 4 regarded the B. sulcatus described by Blanford 5 from 

 the Spiti Shales as identical with B. canaliculatus, Schlotheim, 

 and he also considered the specimen described by Sowerby from 

 Cutch as B. canaliculatus 6 rightly determined, and further he 

 thought it was probably for this species that Oppel proposed the name 

 B. Gerardi. He adopted, however, the name B. canaliculatus, 

 Schloth. A comparison of the specimens from Spiti figured by 

 Blanford with the example from Cutch figured by Sowerby, shows 

 that the latter is more depressed than the former. 



In a postscript to the "Palaeontology of Niti" (p. 106) H. F. Blanford 

 placed Oppel's B. Gerardi as a synonym of B. sulcatus, and adopted 

 the latter name for the species. 



1 Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Gesell., xlvi (1894), p. 30, pi. v, figs. 2, la-c, 3, Za-c. 

 3 A. D'Orbigny, "Prod, de Paleont. stratigr.," vol. i, p. 326, 1850. 



3 Zieten, Verst. Wiirttemb. 1832, p. 27, pi. xxi, fig. 2. 



4 .Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. v, pt. 1, 1865, p. 111. 



5 H. P. Blanford in J. W. Salter and H. F. Blanford, " Palceontology of Niti, in 

 the Northern Himalaya," 186-5. p. 76, pi. x, figs. 1-8. 



6 Trans. Geol. Soc. London [2], vol. v, pi. xxiii, fig. 2 and explanation. 1840. 



