RY THE REV. J. E. TEXISOX- WOODS, F.G.S. 359 



distinct from any described form living or fossil, but resembling 

 some of the spinous species of the China Seas. 3. A cast or the 

 internal septa, with a small portion of the wall of a doubtful 

 coral not unlike one of the genus Conosmilia, of Duncan. This 

 Coral may eventually be determined, but it is of so extremely 

 friable a structure that its details can not easily be worked out. 

 4. A Conus, not like any known to me as part of the Pacific 

 fauna. 5. An Oliva, like some of the common tropical forms. 

 6. A Natica, very like JV. Wintlei nobis of the Victorian and 

 Tasmanian Miocene. 7. Two species of Turritella, very near to 

 T. Sturtii, of the Tasmanian Miocene. 8. A Troplion of decidedy 

 Australian affinities. 9. A cast of a Turhonilla. 10. Two valves 

 of a Corhula, both broken, not unlike C. scaphoides, Hinds. 



The matrix in which all these shells are embedded is a brown 

 slightly ferruginous sandy clay. The fossils are quite white and 

 much decomposed, so that they become pulverulent on the 

 slightest touch. This does not arise from weathering, as the 

 state is the same even when the clay is freshly broken. 



The above list shows a tertiary and, as far as we can judge 

 from the Fungia and Oliva, a tropical fauna. Any tertiary 

 marine rocks from the Pacific are of high interest because of 

 their bearing upon the coral reef theory. It has already been 

 remarked by Dana and others that in some portions of the 

 Fijee group many marks of upheaval are to be seen, but these 

 were supposed to refer to a very modern physical change. These 

 fossils must claim a much more ancient origin. By many it is 

 supposed that the reef islands in the Pacific mark the site of some 

 former continent. But if we find in the centre of those islands 

 tertiary marine remains, the ancient continent theory will be 

 difficult to maintain. I await further information, and as I hope 

 fresh supplies of fossils, to give full details. 



