8 



Bulletin 35 



156 



Page 268 



on the shores of the Gulf of Paria ; but the same formation ha s 

 been found at Cumana and other places in Venezuela on the 

 continent of South America. The few fossils found in Trinidad 

 and in the same formation at Cumana have led to the belief that 

 the Older Parian was probably of Neocomian age. 



During a short visit to Pointe a Pierre, I obtained several fossils 

 from the Older Parian rocks, and these fossils are the subject of the 

 present communication. 



The extreme point of the cliff at Pointe a. Pierre in the Gulf 

 of Paria is formed of a hard ferruginous sandstone, which is 

 somewhat brittle and coarse in its structure, and contains no fossils. 

 The dip from 40 0 to 45 0 S. 



The most conspicuous among the organic remains is a Trigonia 

 considered by Mr. Ethridge to be the same species as that fonnd 

 at Bogota, and named by D'Orbigny Trigonia subcrenulata*. Of 

 this fossil I found one entire specimen and several disunited valves. 



Mr. Etheridge notices the entire absence of Cephalopoda in 

 the collections made by the geologists when here, stating that 

 the want of such fossils prevented a comparison with the strata 

 at Bogota and other parts of South America. f I have obtained 

 a specimen oiBelemnites from Point a. Pierre, so very imperfect and 

 worn, however, that it is difficult to ascertain to what section of 

 the genus of Cephalopoda it belongs. If, however, it belongs, as 

 seems probable, to the sub-section Acuarii of Bronn's section Acwli, 

 it furnishes additional evidence of the correctness of Mr. Etheridge' s 

 determination of the age of the strata exh ibited at Pointe a Pierre 

 as Neocomian. The presence of the Belemnite is at once a proof 

 of the Mesozoic age of the older Parian group ; and, as the genus 

 is not found above the Gault, we must consider the Pointe a. Pierre 

 deposits as older than the true Chalk. 



Numerous fragments of an Oyster, somewhat like Ostrea carinata 

 of the Lower Greensand, are found with the Trigonia. At the same 

 locality I have found Oysters referable perhaps to two other species. 

 One of these is somewhat like the recent Ostrea edulis y and in one of 

 my specimens the markings of the hinge-cartilage are well shown. 

 * Geological Survey of Trinidad, p. 163. 



t Ibid. , and Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xvi, p. 465. 



