1890.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 7 



from the rock of the eastern coast. The latter is ^olian and 

 varies in texture. In some places it is quite coarse and in others 

 fine, but always composed of rounded grains of coral sand or 

 comminuted shells. In some places, as at Conch Rock, near 

 Conch Sound, the rock has been so altered as to resemble a 

 dark-gray crystalline limestone. In one place only did I see 

 the contact between the ^Eolian formation and the true coal rock. 

 This was on Andros near the entrance to Fresh Creek, where a 

 vertical face about ten feet in height was exposed. The lower 

 four feet were composed of fragments of coral stems, mostly a 

 madrepore, probably M. cervicormis, but so eroded as to make 

 identification impossible. Above this lay the ^olian rock, the 

 contact being sharp and distinct, and the contrast between the 

 laminated appearance of the one and the irregular surface of 

 the other being very striking. While no masses of corals were 

 to be seen, that were undoubtedly standing as they grew, the 

 fragments, some of them about a foot in length, were crowded 

 together and presented the same appearance as I had seen in 

 places in the reef at Nicols Town, where the branches of M. 

 cer'vicornus had been broken off and lay in a heap on the bot- 

 tom. The striking contrast between the ^olian rock above and 

 that in which the corals were, showed plainly that the two rocks 

 were formed under different circumstances, and that the lower 

 stratum liad been formed underwater, for it showed none of the 

 characteristics of beach or wind-drifted deposits. Although this 

 is the only place where elevated corals were found in profusion, 

 in many other localities, as at Nicols Town and Mastic Point, 

 Andros, a few fossil corals were found embedded in the rock 

 and evidently in place. The most common coral thus found 

 was a Ma?andrina, probably the same as now living on the shore 

 near low- water mark — a circular, flat species. 



In Nassau excellent sections of the rock can be seen in an 

 old quarry, the " Queen's Staircase." and in the present quarry. 

 In the first of these places the section is, I believe, ninety feet 

 high, and the rock is entirely ^Eolian. The most common fossil 

 is a species of Strophia that I suspect will prove different from 

 those now living on the island.' A few helicoid shells were col- 

 lected, and parts of a crab were noted, but only one or two 

 marine shells, a Pissurella, and fragments of a lamellibranch 

 were obtained. These facts all indicate the ^Eolian origin of the 

 deposit. 



^ My thanks are due to Prof. Dall, who has kindly examined my 

 Strophias, and who is inclined to provisionally refer some of the fossil 

 forms to S. maritima Pfr. , and states that others seem to connect inari- 

 tima with forms like Glans Kust. which I found living on Andros. 



