324 R. J. L. Guppy — Naparima Modes, Trinidad. 



In these I have found very evident orgauic remains, though I cannot 

 yet say exactly what they are. In another stratum of the same rock, 

 1 found two or three identifiable Foraminif'era, namely, Pidlenia 

 and Sphceroidina, both deep-water forms." J. W. Gregory found 

 indeterminable fragments of Radiolaria in this rock, and I can 

 confirm this observation, such remains being abundant. 



It is singular that no attempt was ever made to ascertain whether 

 ■water could be obtained from beneath the Naparima Eocks. Previous 

 to my arrival in the island (1859), the Government offered a reward 

 of £2,000 for the discovery of water by means of an artesian well 

 in Naparima. One would have thought that that would have been 

 sufficient encouragement for such an attempt. A close examination 

 of the physical features and geology of the country might afford 

 to an observant eye and a sanguine mind further encouragement 

 for a prosecution of the search for subterranean water. In m^' 

 paper on the water-bearing capacities of Trinidad Eocks (published 

 in the Trinidad Agricultural Eecord, 1891), also in my paper in the 

 Journal of the Geological Society already quoted, I gave a description 

 of the marls of Naparima, showing that these rocks do not yield 

 springs, nor do they contain water except in union with the rock. 

 It is true the rock (marl) is capable of union with any quantity of 

 water, but it will not give up this water except by the process of 

 evaporation. I had not mentioned the fact, however, that in one 

 or two places in Naparima there are at the bottom of ravines or 

 gullies springs of water which, though too small to give rise to any 

 stream, being rapidly absorbed by the soil or dissipated by evapora- 

 tion, serve to a very limited extent for drinking and washing 

 purposes. Their existence is usually obvious to the wayfarer, for 

 they assail his senses by the view of linen spread on bush and grass, 

 the smell of foul water, and the noise of banging and beating of 

 clothes characteristic of the Creole way of washing. Now it has 

 occurred to me that these springs arise from the rock vertically 

 underlying the marls, and that they only occur where the depth of 

 the marl above the underlying rock is not great. This underlying 

 or hypogene rock I suppose to be an extension of the hypogene or 

 granitoid rocks of South America. 



I am satisfied now that the Naparima deposits are not a continuous 

 series of formations of several thousands of feet in thickness, but 

 that the rocks as shown in section are several repetitious of the 

 same beds or series of beds. As these beds are now almost vertical, 

 it is evident that the movements which have brought about the 

 alteration in position have been very extensive, and the inter- 

 mediate and connecting portions of the strata have been removed 

 by denudation. 



In my paper on the Gulf of Paria, printed in the Proceedings of 

 the Victoria Institute of Trinidad, 1894, p. lOG, I touched cursorily 

 on the remarkable depression between Trinidad and Venezuela 

 passing through the Bocas. I reproduce here what I there wrote : — 



" The Bocas are narrow channels connecting the Gulf of Paria 

 with the Caribean Sea. These channels have had their origin 



