1890. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 7 
from the rock of the eastern coast. The latter is Aolian 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 Molian 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 MM. cervicornus, 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 J. 
cervicornus had been broken off and lay in a heap on the bot- 
tom. The striking contrast between the Alolian 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 had been formed under water, 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 Meandrina, 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 Holian. 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 Fissurella, and fragments of a lamellibranch 
were obtained. These facts all indicate the Molian origin of the 
deposit. 
1 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 mari- 
tima with forms like Glans Kust. which I found living on Andros. 
