The Tertiary Fossils of Somaliland, as represented in the British Museum (Natural History)

Abstract

I. I ntroduction . S ince the publication in the fifty-sixth volume of this Journal (1900) of Prof. J. W. Gregory's paper on the Geology of Somaliland, which was founded upon specimens in the British Museum (Natural History) mostly collected and presented by Mrs. Lort-Phillips, the National Collections have been enriched by two further series of fossils from the same country—that obtained by Dr. Donaldson Smith from the neighbourhood of Berbera, and presented by His Highness the Gaekwar of Baroda; the other presented by Major R. G. Edwards Leckie (of the Canadian Mounted Rifles), and collected by him during an exploration-tour, from Upper Sheikh and Garrasgooi in the Golis-Range district, and also from the Eilo Range of mountains. In the course of my official duties at the British Museum, I have been entrusted with the examination of these new collections, with the view of describing the individual specimens, as well as of ascertaining their importance with regard to the stratigraphy of the country. In carrying out this work, a large amount of comparison with species already known from Somaliland and elsewhere has been imperative, while the limestone-matrices surrounding the different specimens have been microscopically examined in several cases, in order that the best confirmatory evidence should be obtained as to geological horizons. This examination has rendered necessary a revision of some of the geological and palæontological conclusions referred to in Prof. Gregory's memoir, for which I am largely responsible in connection with the determination of certain molluscan remains therein mentioned. The new material