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 
ia the possessor of one of the choicest private archaeological collections m 
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 liaving a recognized 
position as labourers in the same field ; and tliis, too, before their own re- 
searches were published. In their case a higher impulse extinguished the 
mere collector's instinct. !Xo comment is required. — Sir, your obedient 
servant, H. Falconeb. 
" 21, Park 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 Foraminifera from the Terttaries of Trinidad. — At 
page 38 of the ' Eeport 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 Xummulites 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, wiiile the Numniulites 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- 
mnlites is regarded as a strictly Tertiary form of Khizopod, while Orbi- 
toides has been found in the Chalk or Upper Mesozoic deposits, as well as 
in the Lower Tertiar}" formations. 
Of the Orhitoides vast numbers are contained in the San Fernando Ter- 
tiaries. They are found alike in tiie 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 X. Icevigata, but the chambers seem to be, in the San 
Fernando specimens, larger relativelv to the size of the whole shell. AVhen 
a portion of the rock is submitted to" heat, and the asphalte thus driven off, 
the 2summulites generally fall into two pieces, each of which presents a 
* Report on the Geology of Triuidad, pp. 35 and 162. 
