158 



Bulletin 35 



306 



PAPER No. 21. 

 FOSSILS FROM SPRINGVALE NEAR COUVA, TRIN- 

 IDAD.— SECOND REPORT— IN CONTINUATION 

 ON SOCIETY PAPER NO. 440. 



Agr. Soc. Trin. and Tob. — Society paper No. 454. Separ- 

 ate paging, 1- 10 with line etching figure and half-tone plate of 

 fossil remains. Plate caption "Proceedings Agricultural Society, 

 Vol. 11, pis. 1 and 2." 



Page 1 



I have already made a first Report on the Springvale Fossils 

 which has appeared in the Proceedings of the Society for No- 

 vember 1 910, page 447. Under the Auspices of the Agricultural 

 Society I visited the Springvale quarry, on the 16th November, in 

 company with Dr. Fredholm and others. The Road Officer, Mr. 

 Todd, who is in charge of the quarry gave us every assistance. 

 This enabled me to glean some further information. The deposit 

 is one of remarkable richness in fossil shells and the variety of 

 species found in the one place is quite astonishing. The shells 

 are generally well-preserved, but their fragility is such that 

 many beautiful specimens go to pieces on handling or in trans- 

 port. I found that the difference in color of different samples of 



Page 2 



the bed, w r hich I had previously noticed, was due merely to oxida- 

 tion, the portions of the bed near the surface being converted to a 

 reddish-brown color, while the inner parts were gray. This is 

 quite a common or rather almost universal change produced by 

 the access of air and Water. 



The quarry is situated on the side of a low hill, one of the 

 lateral spurs of the Montserrat range. It is in a cacao wood and 

 the neighbouring surfaces are covered with vegetation, so that it 

 could only be with axe, pick and spade that further exploration 

 could be made. I should think it likely that the deposit would 

 be found to extend to a considerable distance. The material 

 would be useful on a soil destitute of lime, but the soils in the 

 immediate neighborhood are fairly supplied with this substance. 



