95 
wholly of sponge spicules. An analysis made of this rock showed 
its composition to be : — 
Silica soluble in 5 per cent. NaHO .... 60.22 
Silica insoluble in 5 per cent. NaHO . . . 23.40 
Alumina 6.25 
iron oxide 1.95 
Lime 13 
Magnesia 57 
Water above ioo° 2.74 
Water below ioo° 3.50 
Alkalis and loss 1.24 
100.00 
This stone resists fire well and has for many years been used by 
local residents for building bread ovens, etc. 
The flats a few miles to the north of Albany are composed of 
an estuarine or littoral silt of Tertiary age, in which fossil sponges 
are common. Man} 7 large siliceous sponges have been found in 
two brick pits and loose spicules are plentiful in the silt. 
Foraminifera. — Slightlv more has been done in the direction 
of classifying our fossil foraminifera, though even here the sum 
and total of work done is insignificant in comparison with that 
remaining to be done. The Census of Fossil Foraminifera of 
Australia submitted by the Rev. W. Howchin to the Australasian 
Association in 1893 contains only three West Australian species, 
all of them from the Carboniferous of the Upper Irwin River. 
In 1895 these three species, all new, were described in detail, 
with drawings, in a paper read before the Royal Society of South 
Australia.* In Vol. XX I of the Proceedings of the Royal Society 
of Victoria there is an important paper by Mr. F. Chapman, giving 
a detailed description, with drawings, ol twenty-three species 
of foraminifera, six of them new, washed from the interior of fossfi 
shells of T rigonia and CucuUaea collected in the Greenough district. 
Practically the only other available information is contained 
in Bulletin 27 of the Geological Survey in three articles, one by 
Mr. Chapman, of the Melbourne Museum, the second by Mr. R. 
Etheridge, Junr., of the Sydney Museum, and the last by Rev. 
W. Howchin, of Adelaide. Mr'. Chapman described and figured 
five species washed from a soft sandstone associated with the 
coal seams at Collie. Mr. Etheridge gave a description and 
several figures of a single species from the Carboniferous of the 
LTpper Irwin. Mr. Howchin recorded details of thirty-seven 
species washed from the G ingin chalk. 
The mudstones underlying Perth, samples of which are fre- 
quently brought to the surface by boring, would certainly yield 
many species. One species was also observed in the stone from 
Mt. Barker, which carries sponge spicules. The Post-Tertiary 
limestones so strongly developed all along the south-west coast 
Traus. R.S. of S.A., Vol. XIX, Part 2. 
