120 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
Mrs. Stoner. Day after day she accompanied her husband in 
the field, working in the hot sun or drenched by the frequent 
showers. It is just that she should share the credit for the excel- 
lent collection of insects obtained by the expedition. 
Geological notes. Prof. A. O. Thomas, official geologist of 
the expedition, has kindly handed me the following notes, which 
I give in his own words. Professor Thomas was one of the 
most energetic and tireless workers of our party. He was always 
at work, and secured, I am confident, as complete a collection of 
geological material as possible in the time at his disposal. 
The Greater and Lesser Antilles form a long chain which rep- 
resents the tops of highlands or mountain peaks. This land 
mass has connected North and South America during certain 
geological periods in the earth’s history. Much of the plant 
and animal life of the islands is a relic of the more widely 
distributed life of the periods when the islands were more close- 
ly connected. A very slight diastrophic elevation now would 
connect some of the islands, for example Barbuda and Antigua. 
Some of the West India islands have experienced more or less 
violent voleanie activity. St. Kitts has a ridge of volcanic 
peaks culminating in Mt. Misery. Martinique has an active 
voleano, Pelée; St. Vincent has Soufriere; and St. Lucia the 
famous Pitons. 
Barbados is set off from the chain of the Lesser Antilles by 
about 70 or 80 miles. Once in early Tertiary it was a part of the 
mainland mentioned above and the oldest beds, exposed in the 
Scotland district, are made up of sandstones, conglomerates, 
and shales intermingled in places with thin beds of volcanic 
origin,—mainly voleanic ash. These beds of terrigenous origin 
represent active erosion and transportation by running water 
from some nearby land now far beneath the sea. After that 
event the region was let down to great depths and beds of 
oceanic ooze of formaniferal and other origin were laid down 
over the basic sands and shales. 
The beds of ‘‘Barbados Earth,’’ as the foraminiferal strata 
are called, are famous both for the radiolaria and foraminifera 
