﻿162 SMITH. 



To judge from the sequence of sediments, there were evidently periods 

 of normal erosion, alternating with times of volcanic activity, which 

 resulted in a shower of pumice and lapilli coming from some unknown 

 source; in any event there must be some close connection between the 

 origin of the "eruptive conglomerate" and the tuff Beds. 



This north stretch of the coast is exceedingly rugged and wild, having 

 been likened by a Scotchman residing in Nagpartian to the scenery along 

 his own coast of Scotland. If at times some of the little coves do not 

 harbor a smuggler or two it is the fault of the smuggler for not taking 

 advantage of exceptional opportunities. With the exception of a boat 

 of the Compahia General de Tabncos de Filipinos once a week, only small 

 native virays are seen in these lonely waters. 



Punta Negra and Punta Blanca Orbitoidal Limestone. — Overlying 

 and unconformable to both the ash beds and the manganiferous eruptive 

 material on the coast between Puntas Negra and Blanca there is a lime- 

 stone caj^ping to the hills, the remnant of what was at one time a more 

 extensive formation. This limestone is very coarse grained, vesicular and 

 is largely made up of triturated, hard parts of various shell-bearing inver- 

 tebrates. Among the numerous foraminiferal tests to be seen in the 

 slides from this rock, those of Orbitoides belonging to the Lepidocycline 

 group are seen, these are of the same species as the ones from many other 

 parts of the Islands, and they agree very closely with L. insulae-natalis 

 Chapman and Jones, from the reef limestones of New Hebrides 12 and 

 Christmas Islands. 13 This limestone is Miocene and it is equivalent to 

 the upper limestone of Cebu, of Mindanao and central and southern 

 Luzon. Although I have not been able to follow these formations very 

 continuously in the field, I place this limestone as being younger than the 

 ash beds of Punta Negra, and older than the marl beds of Bacarra and 

 Laoag. There is some very interesting stratigraphy to be worked out 

 at this place in the future. 



Laoag Marl Beds. — Some low, rounded hills, hardly larger than good 

 sized dunes, but which are remnants of a higher land are encountered 

 on the highway between the towns of Laoag and Bacarra. A road cut 

 through one of these in one case gives a section of about iO feet, showing 

 a cream-colored to brownish, sandy marl which contains some remarkably 

 preserved and fresh looking fossil shells. These belong to the following 

 genera : 



Pisania. Turbo. 



Triton. Dentalium. 



Ricinula. Oliva. 



Pleurotoma. Crystallaria. 



12 Chapman, Fred : Notes on the Older Tertiary Foraminiferal Rocks on the 

 West Coast of Santo, New Herbrides, Proc. Linn. jS'oc. N. S. Wales (1905), 2, 271. 

 "Mon. of Christmas Island, Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist. (1900), 242. 



