534 Transactions of the Society, 



results were included and acknowledged by Mr. H. B. Brady, F.li.S,, 



in bis ' IMonograpb of tbe Carboniferous and Permian Foraminifera,' 

 published in the Palaeontograpbical Society's volume for 187G. Tbe 

 publication of a general treatise on tbe subject, by so competent an 

 authority, oftered great facilities for workers in this interesting although 

 somewhat difficult jmlaeontological study. In 1876 the author of the 

 present paper began a systematic investigation of the microzoic beds 

 of Carboniferous age over an extended area of the North of England. 

 The country thus geologically examined may be roughly stated as 

 extending from the Wansbeck to the Wear, in a north and south 

 direction, and from a line a httle east of Corbridge, on the east, to 

 Greenhead, on the west. The vertical range of the geological section 

 concerned extends from the highest calcareous bed of the district down 

 to the " P " Limestone of the Ordnance Geological Survey map. 

 "Within the limits of the vertical section, 30 distinct calcareous beds 

 are included and separately denominated, and in their examination for 

 Foraminifera, results have been tabulated from 83 localities and 242 

 separate washings. Although every available argillo-calcareous horizon 

 in this series was placed under examination, only five samples throughout 

 the entire vertical range were found to yield no trace of Foraminifera. 

 The district, as defined above, is generally rich in microzoa, whilst 

 some geological horizons are extraordinarily so. The labour of 

 gathering, preparing, and examining so much material, together with 

 manipulating many hundreds of transparent sections necessary to 

 determine doubtful forms, can only be appreciated by those who have 

 had experience in working out these or similar minute palaeozoic 

 organisms. 



The object of the present communication is to place on record 

 some of the more interesting forms, either new to science or previously 

 unobserved in rocks of palaeozoic age, met with during my investiga- 

 tions. I may add that in addition to the species enumerated in the 

 following pages, there are a number of other organisms, which I have 

 some ground for believing to be foraminiferul ; but as the evidence of 

 their affinity is scarcely sufficient to carry conviction to those less 

 accustomed to handle the obscure and often much altered fossil 

 microzoa of these palaeozoic limestones, it appears safest for the 

 present to leave them undescribed. 



I must express my great indebtedness to Mr. H. B. Brady, not 

 only for many valuable hints and the trouble he has taken in the pre- 

 liminaries of publication, but also in seeing this paper through the 

 press, a service all the more valuable in that it was cheerfully rendered 

 and that without it the difficulties of publishing these notes at so great 

 a distance, I fear, would have been insuperable. Mr. Rogers, of 

 Adelaide, has also placed me under great obhgation in drawing the 

 objects, in the first instance, from nature, a work in which he has 

 shown great patience and accuracy. 



