1894-95] 2 °7 



you. S. A. Stewart, F.B.S.E., most kindly examined the 

 shells and shell fragments on the table, and enumerates the 

 following species : — Turritella terebra, Tellina balthica, Mactra 

 solida, Astarte sulcata, Astarte compressa ; all, he informs me ? 

 have a northern facies, but none are decidedly Arctic. 



I regret the collection is so small, but I think the proportion 

 of almost perfect shells to fragmentary is satisfactory, and shows 

 we are dealing with a veritable shell-bed, although its right to 

 be regarded as such has been questioned.* 



The microscopic examination of the sand and gravel is 

 highly interesting : for this I am deeply indebted to Joseph 

 Wright, F.G.S. He finds foraminifera in both, but the gravel 

 is much richer in these rhizopods than the sand. In seven 

 ounces of sand he found only eight specimens of foraminifera, 

 but these include one very rare species, Pulvtnuhna karsteni. 

 In only five ounces of gravel he found twenty-four specimens, 

 that of Lagena squamosa being particularly large. 



A complete list of these foraminifera is appended to this 

 paper. Joseph Wright has made microscopic slides of them, 

 and these, by his kind permission, will be exhibited at the 

 meeting of the Microscopic section next Thursday. 



Although I have not read the whole bibliography of Moel 

 Tryfaen, this is, so far as I am aware, the first time that this 

 interesting bed, so often searched for larger shells, has revealed 

 its microscopic forms. 



Mellard Reade has submitted the drift of Moel Tryfaen and 

 of the Carnarvonshire area to mechanical analysis, and finds 

 the sand of Moel Tryfaen to consist largely of quartz grains, 

 greatly rounded and polished, such grains being almost univer- 

 sally marine. The stones found in the sands and gravels are 

 often water-worn. They are to a certain extent of local origin, 

 but erratics from Cumberland, Galloway, Ailsa Craig, and 



* A few were collected by myself during a very short visit on the 17th of last 

 August, the larger number were sent to me last week by Mr. Hughes, assistant manager 

 of the Alexandra Quarry, and are the result also of one short search. I have further 

 to thank Mr. Hughes for specimens of the deposit in which they were found, and for 

 several details regarding the beds exposed in the quarry. 



