1908-9. ] THE GEOLOGICAL CONNEXIONS OF THE CARIBEAN REGION. 373 
THE GEOLOGICAL CONNEXIONS OF THE CARIBEAN 
REGION. 
By R. J. LECHMERE GUPPY. 
(Read 30th January, 1909). 
The Hypothesis (commonly called the Atlantis Theory) that a 
portion of the area now covered by the Atlantic Ocean was once land, 
occupied my attention in 1865. I wasatthat time engaged in the study 
of the West Indian Tertiary Fossils, for which facilities were afforded to 
me by my kind friend, Dr. Woodward, F.R.S., Head of the Geological 
Department of the British Museum. In my papers read to the 
Geological Society of London, 21st February, 1866, and 20th June, 1866, 
and published in the Journal of the Society, Vol. XXII, pages 281 and 570, 
I stated the results to which my investigations had led me; and in the 
later papers published in the Geological Magazine, 1867, page 496, and 
1874, page 404, I gave some further observations with a brief summary 
of the results so far. Since that time many workers have contributed to 
the Geology and Paleontology of the West Indian Area. A list contain- 
ing mention of most of the works published is appended to a paper by 
me in the Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 1904-5, page 137. 
Those which have special reference to the earth-movements in the 
Caribean Region are by Spencer (on Cuba, Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. VII, 
1895 ; Antillean Continent, Idem, 1895 ; Antillean Valleys, Trans. Can. 
Ins., Vol. V, 1895 ; Changes of Level Mexico, &c., Geol. Soc. Amer., 1897 ; 
Changes of Level Jamaica, &c., Trans. Can. Inst., 1898 ; and Develop- 
ment of Antilles, Journ. Geol. Soc., Lond., Vol. LX VII, 1901 ; also Wind- 
ward Islands, Trans. Can. Inst , 1902); and by Hill (on Cuba, Bull. Mus. 
Harvard, Vol. XVI, 1895 ; and Jamaica, Bull. Mus. Cambr., Vol. XXXIV, 
1899). But these writings, though valuable in their way, do not seem to 
have probed the question at all, and have scarcely assisted us to any 
real solution of the problems presented by the present and past distribu- 
tion of life and of land and water in the region under notice. 
It is not my intention to go over ground that has already been 
worked, and my present efforts are not intended as acomplete statement 
of the case, but merely a contribution to its further development. But 
a brief reference to some of the most important observations may be 
convenient. Some works have probably never come to my notice, and 
