NOTES AND QUERIES. 



159 



Those who take an interest in the advancement of our knowledge of the 

 subject would have congratulated themselves if the Bruniquel materials 

 had been placed in his practised hands, to be included in the work which 

 he and Mr. Henry Christy are about to publish on the ancient remains of 

 man of the ' Cave' period in France. 



" One circumstance in the case deserves to be generally known. The 

 instinct of a collector is to amass, hoard, and retain. Mr. Henry Christy 

 is the possessor of one of the choicest private archaeological collections in 

 Europe. M. Lartet and he explored the Dordogne Caverns on a large 

 scale, with the object — first of exhausting the ground, and next of distri- 

 buting duplicates. They have presented huge slabs of the floor-matrix, 

 containing embedded every variety of object, to all the principal museums 

 in Europe, and selected sets to persons of all countries having a recognized 

 position as labourers in the same field ; and this, too, before their own re- 

 searches were published. In their case a higher impulse extinguished the 

 mere collector's instinct. JS"o comment is required. — Sir, your obedient 

 servant, H. Falconee. 



" 21, Parle Crescent, Portland Place, March 10. 



"P.S. — At the meeting of the Academy of Sciences (February 29) a 

 note on the same and cognate subjects was communicated by the Marquis 

 de Vibraye, who has laboured so meritoriously on the ossiferous caves of 

 France." 



On Some Fobaminifeea feom the Teettaeies of Teinidad. — At 

 page 38 of the 4 Report on the Geology of Trinidad ' is given a figure of a 

 remarkable stratum of asphaltic rock. This stratum is nearly vertical in 

 position, and projects from the cliff to some little distance into the waters 

 of the Gulf of Paria. Though a considerable part of it has been removed 

 since the drawing referred to above was made, it yet seems to possess a 

 superior power of resistance to 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 remains of JSTummulites and Orbitoides, 

 two genera of Foraminifera, whose shells, as is well known to geologists 

 and palaeontologists, form in various parts of the world thick masses of rock; 

 the Orbitoides being generally characteristic of the Eocene period in the 

 western hemisphere, while the JNummulites are regarded as indicative of 

 the Middle Eocene in Europe and Asia. Here, however, we find the re- 

 mains of both these generated in strata of supposed Miocene age.* Num- 

 mulites is regarded as a strictly Tertiary form of Rhizopod, while Orbi- 

 toides has been found in the Chalk or Upper Mesozoic deposits, as well as 

 in the Lower Tertiary formations. 



Of the Orbitoides vast numbers are contained in the San Fernando Ter- 

 tiaries. They are found alike in the gypseous marls which constitute so 

 large a portion of those deposits, 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 

 Messrs. 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 present a decidedly 

 close resemblance to N. Icevigata, but the chambers seem to be, in the San 

 Fernando specimens, larger relatively to the size of the whole shell. When 

 a portion of the rock is submitted to heat, and the asphalte thus driven off, 

 the Nummulites generally fall into two pieces, each of which presents a 



* Report on the Geology of Trinidad, pp. 35 and 162. 



