304 ANTILLEA N FOSSILS— Cr UPP Y AXD BALL. 



and it is probable that the general elevation of the Antillean and Mid- 

 dle American lands, which is known to have taken ])lace about the end 

 of the Oligocene, maintained all of the present land areas above the 

 level of the sea during the Miocene period. The strata of true Miocene 

 in Florida are known to be extremely thin, and may probably have run 

 out altogether a little farther south. 



Upper Oligocene. — The Bowdeu and Clarendon marls of Jamaica, 

 though only a few feet in thickness, are extremely rich in well-preserved 

 fossils, many of wliicli are common to the Cliipola beds, Tampa, and 

 Chattahoochee horizons of Florida, corresponding to the Aqnitaniau 

 of France. The deposits in Jamaica have been explored by Yendryes, 

 from whom Mr, Guppy received most of his Jamaican material; by 

 Henderson and Simpson, for the National ]\Iuseum, and by E. T. Hill, 

 under the ausj)ices of Dr. Alexander Agassiz. Similar beds in Santo 

 Domingo and Haiti have been the source of specimens described by 

 Sowerby and Gabb, and collections made by Eowell and Bland. Mr. 

 Guppy has also described a number of species from this island. On 

 the isthmus in the upper marls of Monkey Hill, in the Xaparima beds 

 of Trinidad, in Curacao and elsewhere, there appear to be strata refer- 

 able to the same series. Mr. Guppj' recognizes the following horizons 

 in Trinidad: Ally Creek shell bed, Naparima; Leda and !N^ucula beds, 

 Xaparima; Ditrupa bed, Pointapier. The last mentioned is evidently 

 due to deposition in deeper water than the others. In all the Trini- 

 dad beds the fossils are less well preserved than in Jamaica, Haiti, and 

 the Isthmus of Darien. 



Loiver Oligocene. — The Guallava sandstones of Costa Rica afforded 

 Mr. Hill a few typical Yicksburgian species, being the southernmost 

 point at which characteristic Yicksburg fauna has yet been recognized. 



Eocene. — The Gatun beds of Conrad and Hill, the lower marls of 

 Monkey Hill, and the Mindi Hill beds of the Panama Isthmus, are 

 Eocene and contain a fair proportion of species connuon to the Clai- 

 bornian of Alabama and the Upper Tejon of California. Among these 

 may be mentioned Liqria perorata, Conrad, Solarium nlreatton, Conrad, 

 Lunatia eminula, Conrad, several species of Naticoids and Cerithiopsis, 

 Turritella iivasana, Conrad, and the genus Ghjptostyla. Some of the 

 species, like Venus icalli, Gupi)y, and C<(rdium haitensis. Sowerby, 

 appear to survive into the Oligocene. This horizon has been explored 

 by Rowell, Conrad, Gabb, and others. The Manzanilla beds of Trini- 

 dad were probably contemporaneous. 



The list of Tertiary fossils of the West Indian region, prepared by 

 Mr. Guppy in 1874,' comprised some 250 species of fossil mollusks, but 

 the fauna is much richer than this, since m one day, at the Bowden 

 beds, ]\Iessrs. Henderson and Simpson procured over 400 si)ecies. A 

 significant proportion of these appear to have survived little changed, 

 or to be represented by closely analogous species in the recent fauna of 



» Geol. Mag., Decade II, I, Xos. 9 ami 10, Sopt. and Oct., 1871. 



