KARAKORAM STONES, OR SYRINGOSPMRTDiE. 3 
re]1 ^? lc " a1,e distinguished Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of India had traced these 
° pin io n a ae s pK'roids to their time and place in the succession of rocks, and he expressed an 
w Mch re * art ^*= ^eir zoological position. They were found in shales beneath limestones 
“ corap» Q ° Cei ^ a * u ty l° w 6r than the Lias, and which were probably triassic in age. The term 
j n " a * singularly justified, for some of the superficial markings on the stones resemble, 
tb<> „ U la di a te appearance and regularity, the casts of the calices of minute Madrcp or aria of 
S' r eat < k' < ' 1>a ^ s ^ roccen ^ a an d Styloccenia. But it is only necessary to remark that Stoliczka’s 
lad hp ° W . §> e °f the Anthozoa would have led him to the expression of a different opinion 
‘ specimens been prepared for microscopic examination, 
lame i °i so ' ca ^ e d Karakoram stones collected during the second Yarkand Expedition by my 
friend were placed in toy hands by Mr. W. T. Blanford in 1878. 
s 0 )iie 1 * s P ecim ens are numerous and in very perfect condition ; the weathering to which 
arp fj'o aVG ^ 6en su bj ec ted rendering the outside details all the more visible. Their surfaces 
other fossils, and a broken serpula tube is the only one to be recognised, 
davl- . <)Ssllz ation fr as occurred by the introduction of calcite, and this is usually somewhat 
(,f nisi S ) ln C °' 0ur ’ Tut is transparent in thin sections. The original structure of the body now 
a Ppea Car ^ ona ^ e lime of a different and lighter colour to the infiltrated calcite, and it 
the -dI f on H le outside of the fossils the original structure has usually disappeared and 
eimec ^ a ^ e or infiltrated mineral has lasted. 
dibit,, 1 made radial and tangential sections of the fossils, assisted by biting out with 
ap acit ls, and the use of low and high powers of the microscope, assisted by the polarising 
frtelud US ’ ren dered their remarkable construction evident, and also that it was necessary to 
4 ^ . .° a fr fr' e Karakoram stones in a new order of 1 Rliizopoda called the Syringosplueridce. 
for o ^ns uew order was published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History 
A , u »v U1 UOI W do JJ LI. UllolloUL JL 
otober 1878, Ser. 5, Yol. II, page 297. 
The general morphology oe toe Eossils, their histology, and their position 
IN THE CLASSEFICATORY SCALE. 
0 ), e p. le Karakoram stones are either nearly perfectly spherical, or more or less spheroidal 
their ,! !° U ^ * n s ^ a P e - They may be of small size, and some are more than three inches in 
of a * ; a cs ^ diameter ; but they are always symmetrical, and there is no trace of a stalk or 
others 01tne y attachment by the surface to other bodies. Some forms are nearly smooth, 
nujQero^ 0 m Kutely granular, each granule having a definite construction, and the most 
less, with ^ >eS ^ lave tubercules, wart-like growths, and large eminences crowded, more or 
Ver rucose ^ a ^ 1 ^ 8e an( l little warts upon them. There is one group of forms with a very 
surface - Sur Kce, and, on the other hand, another type is covered with a finely granulate 
the mass 1101 ^^eless ^is external structure does not interfere with the general curvature of 
p°siti 0n ’ 10 *°1 >S ‘T the highest and lowest eminences never exceeding their symmetrical 
The 
Shallow m° le ni b ose and mammilated surfaces of the fossils have small circular or deformed 
r °Hti dec 1 s S , SCa ^Kj’ed here and there ; they are very numerous in some of the types with 
the 
flee 
surT * Ul 'K Ce tubercles, and are but scantily distributed in others, and whilst they crowd 
om iaCe of 0111 " 
,lj .gate on the equatorial part of some of the spheroidal fossils, and are found on the 
°ne form with a granular surface, they do not exist on another. These pits 
