159 
Guppy Reprint 
1 1 
PAPER No. 2 
ON THE OCCURRENCE OE FORAMINIEERA IN THE 
TER TIAR Y BEDS A T SAN FERNANDO, TRINIDAD 
Read before the “Scientific Association, 1863’’. 
Printed in the Transactions of the Scientific Association of 
Trinidad, i 86 j- 66 , Port-of-Spain , vol. i, dated 1866. 
Also published with slightlj' different wording in The GeoC 
ogist, 1863, p. 159, under the title : On some Foraminifera from 
the Tertiaries of Trinidad. 
The “Scientific A.s.sociation’s version is herewith followed. 
Page II 
At page 38 of the “Report on the Geology of 
Trinidad’’ is given a representation of a remarkable 
stratum of Asphaltic rock. This stratum is nearly verti- 
cal and projects from the cliff to some little distance in 
the waters of the Gulf, seeming to possess greater 
coherence and therefore resisting better 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 shells of Niimmulites and Orbi- 
toides, two genera of Foraminifera whose remains, as is 
well known to Geologists and Palaeontologists, form in 
various parts of the world thick masses of rock ; the 
Orbitoides being generall}' characteristic of the Eocene 
period in the Western hemisphere, while the Nummulites 
are regarded as indicative of the Middle Eocene in 
Europe and Asia. Here, however, we find the remains 
of both these genera associated in strata of supposed 
Miocene age.* Nummulites is regarded as a strictly 
Tertiary form of Rhizopod, while Orbitoides has been 
found in the Chalk or upper Mesozoic deposits as well 
as in the Eower Tertiary formations. 
Of the Orbitoides, vast numbers exist in the San 
Fernando Tertiaries. They are found both in the 
gypseous marls 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 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. 
Nummulites found in the same deposit belong to the 
sinuo-radiate group. 
^Report on the Geology of Trinidad, pp. 35, 161, 164. 
