161 Guppy Rkpint 13 



Paper No. 3 



ON LATER TERTIARY DEPOSITS AT MA TOR A ON 

 THE EAST COAST OF TRINIDAD 



Read to the Scientific Association, Nov. 8, 1864. 



Published in the Transactio?is of the Sciejitific Association of 

 Trinidad for that year, p. 33-43. Republished with slight 

 changes in the Geological Magazine, vol. 2, pp. 256-261 under 

 the title : On some deposits of Late Tertiary age at Matura on 

 the East Coast of Trinidad. Dated, August, 1864. 



The Association's version is given below. 



Page 33 



In the map appended to the ''Report on the Geology 

 of Trinidad" we find the principal coal-bearing strata of 

 the island indicated by a more or less irregular band 

 of dark color stretching from Chaguanas, Couva, and 

 Savonetta on the western or Parian coast to Manzanilla 

 on the eastern or Atlantic side. To the north of this 

 band lies a sterile region of detrital matter, chiefly 

 silicious, marked in the map by yellow with red spots. 

 I wish to draw attention more particularly to that part 

 of this latter formation which lies on the eastern coast 

 between the river Matura and Saline Bay. 



On approaching Matura from Valencia, after having 

 crossed the Oropouche River, an evident change for the 

 better is observable in the nature of the soil ; for instead 

 of the intensely sterile and hungry quartzose sand and 

 white clays which form the principal part of the detrital 

 series, we find that a portion of calcareous matter has 

 mingled with the earth and rendered it somewhat more 

 suitable for agriculture. This calcareous matter seems 

 to have been derived from underlying beds which would 



