Igo NAT ORAE: SCIENCE. Marcu, 
region is one where such an occurrence is very likely to have 
happened, for deep-water deposits of late Tertiary age occur in many 
of the islands; while the raised coral-reefs which are found in the 
same islands, and reach up to a height of 1,800 ft. above the sea, 
prove that there has been recent upheaval to at least that extent. 
Many of the smaller islands are volcanic, and may have been 
thrown up at any time; but Barbados, the most westerly of all the 
islands, has just the features of which we are in search; in its faunal 
aspect it is decidedly oceanic, while its geological structure is a 
curious combination, being partly continental and partly oceanic. 
The facts of the case are so remarkable that a brief review of them 
may here be given. 
Barbados stands on a submarine bank or ridge which slopes away 
in every direction till a depth of more than 1,000 fathoms is reached. 
The core and base of the island consists of stratified rocks, ordinary 
sandstones, clays, and limestones, such as are formed in shallow water 
near a coast-line where rivers of some size carry detritus into the sea, 
and these strata must have been deposited very near such a shore, 
for many of the sandstones are composed of large quartz grains, which 
would not be carried far from land. Above these shallow water 
strata lie deposits of a totally different character, consolidated oceanic 
oozes, like those which are now found only in the deeper parts of the 
ocean, and are known as Globigerina Ooze, Radiolarian Ooze, and Red 
Clay. All these kinds of ooze occur in Barbados, and there is not 
only a superficial resemblance between them and the modern oceanic 
oozes, but a complete identity of structure, and a close analogy in 
chemical composition; upheaval and exposure to rainand weather have, 
of course, effected some little alteration, but have not obscured their 
structure. 
It is certain, therefore, that the shallow sea and the extensive 
shore-line which it bordered sank to a very great depth, certainly to 
more than 1,000 fathoms, and probably to as much as 2,000 fathoms 
(12,000 feet). The site of Barbados was then part of the ocean-floor, 
but after a time upheaval took place, and it was gradually raised 
till it came within the sphere of reef-building corals; a small coral 
islet was the result, but as the upheaval continued, the earliest reefs 
were raised above the sea, and the area of the island was gradually 
enlarged. This process went on till the island attained its present 
dimensions (about the size of the Isle of Wight), the soft oceanic 
deposits and the still older sandstones and clays being protected 
from the erosive action of the waves by a thick coating of coral rock, 
except over a small area in the north-west part of the island, where 
the rain has cut deep valleys through the stratified rocks, and by 
carrying sand and mud into the sea has prevented the growth of 
continuous coral reefs on that side. 
Now, an island with such a history must necessarily have 
received its present fauna and flora in the same casual way as an 
