265 Guppy Reprint 117 
Page 28/ 
The principal deductions from the observations I have made 
on the Microzoic deposits of Naparima are stated in my paper read 
to the Geological Society* and I do not propose now to go over the 
same ground again. I may, however, briefly state some of those 
conclusions namely that deep water (say somewhere about 1000 
fathoms more or less f) existed where Naparima now is ; that the 
nearest land was some twenty to twenty-five miles distant from 
thence and that that land was the Parian range that is to say the 
northern mountain range of Venezuela then forming a continuous 
and unbroken chain with our northern hills. We infer also that 
the Parian range was the southern boundary of a mass of land 
occupj’ing some portion of the present Caribean Sea but of what 
extent we have not the means of judging at present. Any one 
wishing for fuller information on the subject can refer to my 
paper just quoted. I may mention as matters of economic 
importance that the use of some of the Naparima marls for the 
manufacture of cement, and of the Argiline of the Naparima 
Hill for polishing purposes as well as railway ballast are alluded 
to in the paper. Some account has been given first in the 
Geological Report and next in my paper just referred to of the 
•SO called Argiline of Naparima Hill. Identifiable fossils have not 
hitherto been found in this rock. However, we are onlj^ on the 
threshold of knowledge as regards this as well as the other 
formations of Trinidad. Reds of different texture occur in the 
argiline, some being more sandy in composition. In the.se I 
have found very evident organic remains though I cannot yet 
say exacth' what thej' are. In another stratum of the same 
rock I found two or three identifiable foraminifera, namely 
Piillenia and Sphaeroidma, both deep water forms But 
many of the other Naparima and Pointapier rocks contain a 
great variety of remarkable and interesting Microzoa and other 
fossils. Besides the Foraminifera and Radiolaria we have some 
small corals and polyzoa and many spines and plates of echino- 
derms (including Holothurians, brittle-stars, common sea-stars and 
sea-eggs, J spicules of .seafans and seapens and of sponges (both 
siliceous and calcareous) . The Pointapier Ditrupa-bed contains 
abundance of such organisms as well as coccoliths, peculiar little 
organisms characteristically abundant in deep sea deposits ; and 
abso pretty little star-like objects figured b}" Jukes-Brown and 
Harrison in their paper. These I have considered to belong to 
*Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlviii (1892) p. 519. 
tBrady (cited by Jukes-Brown and Harrison, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 
vol. xlviii (1882) page 197) estimates the depth of water in which the 
foraminifera! beds of Barbados were deposited at from 500 to 1000 fathoms. 
The fauna of our Naparima beds is almost identical. When my paper was 
written I had not seen Jukes-Brown and Harrison’s paper and had no 
knowledge of its contents. 
