520 ME. R. J. LECHMERE GITPPY ON THE 



One bed was described as consisting entirely of the tests of 

 Orbitoides and Nummulina, while other beds were described as 

 unfossiliferous. But in 1872 I was able to announce that what up 

 to that time had been considered to be oolitic grains in certain of 

 the " unfossiliferous " ISTaparima Beds were really minute organisms, 

 chiefly foraminifera.^ 



In the following year I gave a further account of the West Indian 

 Tertiary fossils,^ with lists of all the species of invertebrates (corals 

 excepted) known up to that date from those rocks. Further in- 

 formation on the palaeontology will be found in Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc. vol. xxxii. (1876) p. 516; W. M. Gabb, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 vol. XV. p. 49 ; and Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1872, p. 270. 



Sufficient evidence had meanwhile accumulated to show that, 

 while the Caroni Series of Trinidad might be correlated with the 

 Miocene formation of Haiti, Jamaica, and Cumana, the fossiliferous 

 deposits of Naparima and Manzanilla were of older date, probably 

 Eocene. In this connexion I would refer the reader to the rough 

 diagram of the succession in Trinidad which I published in Proc. 

 Sci. Assoc, (of that island) for December, 1877. 



But I had had since 1874 no opportunities of going again over 

 the ground in the Naparima district, until at the end of 1890 and 

 in the beginning of ,1891 I undertook a re-examination of the beds, 

 the results of which are summed up in the following pages. It 

 should be premised, however, that the work of exploration is ex- 

 tremely arduous, and the difficulties of every kind which confront 

 the observer are such as to preclude a thoroughly exhaustive inves- 

 tigation. 



§ 2. The Steatigeapht of the Napaeima Beds. 



The diagram on p. 522 is the result of an examination of the 

 coast-line from near the northern limit of the known Tertiary rocks 

 of Naparima to the Oropuch Lagoon, the southern limit of the Micro- 

 zoic Beds. The series of beds marked 1 and 2 appear to belong to 

 the "Nariva Series" of the Geological Eeport, supposed to be 

 inferior in position to the IS'aparima Marls of that Report. I am 

 doubtful on this point, not having met with any evidence of super- 

 position. The rocks themselves, as exposed on the shore and in 

 railway-cuttings, consist chiefly of impure ferruginous and gypseous 

 marls of various colours, containing in places thin veins of sandstone 

 with particles of mica. Large blocks of crystalline gypsum occur 

 abundantly in some parts of this formation. The less impure beds 

 contain Glohigerina and other foraminifera, but not very abun- 

 dantly. These rocks present, in my opinion, a very close resem- 

 blance to the deposits derived from the denudation of the Naparima 

 (Eoraminiferal) Marls now being laid down in the Gulf of Paria, 

 between San Fernando and Oropuch. Some seams of a substance 

 resembling coal have been found in this formation; but no such 



1 See Geol. Mag. for 1873, p. 362. 



2 Ibid, for 1874, pp. 404, 433. 



