159 Guppy Reprint 



PAPER No. 2 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF FOR A MINIFERA IN THE 

 TER 77 A R Y BEDS A T SAN FERNANDO, TRINIDAD 



Read before the "Scientific Association, 1863". 



Printed in the Transactions of the Scientific Association of 

 Trinidad, 1863-66, Port-of- Spain, vol. 1, dated 1866. 



Also published with slightly different wording in The Geol- 

 ogist, 1863, p. 159, under the title : On some Foraminifera from 

 the Tertiaries of Trinidad. 



The "Scientific Association's version is herewith followed. 



Page 11 



At page 38 of the "Report on the Geology of 

 Trinidad" is given a representation of a remarkable 

 stratum of Asphaltic rock. This stratum is nearly verti- 

 cal and projects from the cliff to some little distance in 

 the waters of the Gulf, seeming to possess greater 

 coherence and therefore resisting better the encroachment 

 of the waves than the remaining portions of the cliff. 

 Upon a close examination, the vertical mass is found to 

 consist chiefly of the shells of Nummulites and Orbi- 

 toides, two genera of Foraminifera whose remains, as is 

 well known to Geologists and Palaeontologists, form in 

 various parts of the world thick masses of rock ; the 

 Orbitoides being general^ characteristic of the Eocene 

 period in the Western hemisphere, while the Nummulites 

 are regarded as indicative of the Middle Eocene in 

 Europe and Asia. Here, however, we find the remains 

 of both these genera associated in strata of supposed 

 Miocene age.* Nummulites is regarded as a strictly 

 Tertiary form of Rhizopod, while Orbitoides has been 

 found in the Chalk or upper Mesozoic deposits as well 

 as in the Lower Tertiary formations. 



Of the Orbitoides, vast numbers exist in the San 

 Fernando Tertiaries. They are found both in the 

 gypseous marls and in the asphaltic portions of the group. 

 In the marls they chiefly occur in the nodular concretions 

 and in the indurated veins and layers. In the singular 

 mass of rock figured by Wall and Sawkins the Orbitoides 

 seem to form the greater part of its bulk. They are not 

 referable to any species of which I have seen figures. 

 The Nummulites found in the same deposit belong to the 

 sinuo-radiate group. 

 ^Report on the Geology of Trinidad, pp. 35, 161, 164. 



