Correspondence — Mr. James Bennie. 47 



NOTE ON EANGE OF SACCAMMINA CARTERI, BEADY, IN THE 

 CAEBONIFEEOFS SEEIES. 



Sir, — In Ms paper " On the Limits of the Yoredale Series in the 

 North of England," ^ Mr. Lebour says, in a footnote : '' Up to the 

 present time the well-marked foraminifer Saccammina Carteri, Brady, 

 is apparently limited to a bed in the Upper or Yoredale part of the 

 Beries, viz. the Four-fathom Limestone." Mr. Lebour seems to be 

 unaware of the fact that S. Carteri has been found plentifully in Scot- 

 land in the limestones at the bottom of the Carboniferous Series. In 

 the Appendix to the Explanation of Sheet 23,^ Mr. R. Etheridge, 

 Jan., says, page 96: "In the Midlothian Carboniferous Series one 

 of the collectors of the Geological Survey, Mr. J. Bennie, has lately 

 found Foraminiferee at several localities rather abundantly. The 

 occurrence of Saccammina Carteri has also been proved by the same 

 collector at no less than eight localities in the Lower Limestone 

 Group, viz. at Mount Lothian, Fullarton, Crichton Magazine, 

 Currielee and Middleton Quarries, Bood's Mill, and No. 16 Mine, 

 Addiewell, Edinburghshire. S. Carteri was also obtained some 

 years ago by the Geological Survey at the Cat Craig, Dunbar." 

 Mr. Etheridge alludes in the last sentence to specimens of Saccam- 

 mina limestone collected by the Survey collector Mr. R. Gibbs, 

 either shortly before or after 1858. These specimens may be seen 

 in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, and also in 

 the Survey Collection, Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh. In 

 the Jermyn Street Catalogue of Fossils, published 1865, page 117, 

 is the following entry: '' Foraminifera in Limestone; Cat Craig, 

 Dunbar," from which I infer that Mr. Salter had prior to that date 

 recognized this fossil to be a Foraminifer. 



In 1874: I found the same fossil at Kidlaw, Haddingtonshire, 

 also in the Lower Limestones, and this year (June, 1875) at Donken 

 Quarry, Dumfriesshire, in a limestone much lower down than any of 

 the limestones above referred to, viz. in the Calciferous Sandstones, 

 or what Mr. Lebour calls the Tuedian Rocks. 



Mr. John Young, in a paper " On the Occurrence of Saccammina 

 Carteri, Brady, in the Limestone Series of Lanarkshire," read 

 April, 1872, published in the Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vol. iv. 

 p. 263, records the finding by himself of fragments of limestone in 

 which were "abundance of small spherical spots of white carbonate 

 of lime, which in 1872 he recognized as Saccammina Carteri;''^ and 

 further adds, the same Foraminifer has been found by Mr. Hunter in 

 the Main Limestone, Carluke. These limestones are the lowest of 

 the Carboniferous Series. 



From these facts Mr. Lebour will see that S. Carteri is not limited 

 to the Upper or Yoredale Rocks, but has a much lower range, being 

 plentiful in the lowest beds of the Carboniferous Series, and has 

 been found even far down in the Calciferous Sandstone Series. 



James Bennie. 



1 Geol. Mag. Nov. 1875, p. 543. 



2 Memoirs Geol. Surv. Scot., publisked Nov. 1873. 



