290 Profs. W. King and T. H. Rownoy on the 



nent rods were white-walled tubules that have become filled 

 with a translucent material. This is particularly the case in 

 those ovoids composed of slender rods : indeed it often requires 

 more than the eye to determine that the rods are solid ; for in 

 many instances they appear like actual tubules in an empty 

 condition ! 



In short, looking at the ovoids, whether a transverse or lon- 

 gitudinal section (tig. 18) be under examination, they might 

 be readily taken for fossil corals of the genus Stenopora ; and 

 some resemble certain Carboniferous and Permian species so 

 closely that a consideration of structural characters alone does 

 not enable one to differentiate them from the organisms they 

 simulate. 



The spheres have also a strikingly organic appearance. 

 Some specimens resemble, when a few are clustered together, 

 certain foraminifers — notably Rotalia and Globigerina (fig. 

 19*); while others in an isolated state have the resemblance 

 of Orbulinas. Nay, have we not an appearance of actualities^ 

 of the latter represented in fig. 20? As shown in this figure, 

 two examples appear to be perfect casts in serpentine f ; and 

 all the others have what appears to be their shell-case not only 

 beautifully preserved, but riddled with pseudopodial pores! 



Besides the ovoids and spheres, the saponite contains patches 

 consisting of what may be taken for closed-cell structure ; and 

 in a few cases, as in fig. 21, we have detected another struc- 

 tural form, resembling, in being canaliculated, sponge-tissue, 

 with its walls appearing as if distinctly perforated. 



It may be that the explanation we have to offer to account 

 for the origin of the coral-like bodies is not strictly correct; and 

 it is possible that we are as far from the mark regarding the 

 foraminifer-like spheres : we also confess our inability to offer 

 any solution of the sponge-like structure free from grave ob- 

 jections. Unlike the simulations in saponite, those last de- 

 scribed do not appear to have resulted from chemical changes, 

 but rather, to some extent, from structural modifications of the 

 mineral we have provisionally assumed to be tremolite. Ob- 

 serve in fig. 22 a specimen of this mineral in its fully developed 

 condition, consisting of prismatic and fibrous fasciculi, roughly 

 speaking, ovoidal in shape. In some fasciculi their internal 

 structure is well marked; while in others it is scarcely to be 



* The specimen figured appears as if it were a section of a Globigerina 

 with its chambers containing two or three embryos (black spots) ! 



t The centre of these two spheres is in the condition of saponite. The 

 other spheres are greenish white in colour ; evidently due to the serpentine 

 passing into the flocculent condition. All the spheres are imbedded in the 

 tremolite. 



