Guppy Rbpint 
13 
x6t 
Paper No. 3 
ON LATER TERTIARY DEPOSITS AT MATLR A ON 
THE EAST COAST OF TRINIDAD 
Read to the Scientific A.ssociation, Nov. 8, 1864. 
Published in the Transactions of the Scientific Association of 
Trhiidad for that year, p. 33-43. Republished with slight 
changes in the Geological Magazine, vol. 2, pp. 256-261 under 
the title : On some depo.sits of Late Tertiary age at Matura on 
the East Coast of Trinidad. Dated, August, 1864. 
The Association’s version is given below. 
Page 33 
In the map appended to the “Report on the Geology 
of Trinidad’’ we find the principal coal-bearing strata of 
the island indicated by a more or less irregular band 
of dark color stretching from Chaguanas, Couva, and 
Savonetta on the western or Parian coast to Manzanilla 
on the eastern or Atlantic side. To the north of this 
band lies a sterile region of detrital matter, chiefly 
silicious, marked in the map b}' 3’ellow with red spots. 
I wish to draw attention more particularly to that part 
of this latter formation which lies on the eastern coast 
between the riv'^er Matura and Saline Bay. 
On approaching Matura from Valencia, after having 
crossed the Oropouche River, an evident change for the 
better is observable in the nature of the soil ; for instead 
of the inten.sel}’ sterile and hungrj' quartzose sand and 
w'hite clays which form the principal part of the detrital 
series, we find that a portion of calcareous matter has 
mingled with the earth and rendered it somewhat more 
suitable for agriculture. This calcareous matter seems 
to hav^e been derived from underlying beds w'hich would 
