IN THE MUD OF THE LEVANT 59 



or Diat.omaceee ; as yet I have detected neither, 

 though some few doubtless may exist, but certainly 

 not in sufficient abundance to constitute, in any 

 subsequent re-arrangement of the elements, a sili- 

 ceous substance resembling flint. 



Recent calcareous sand, obtained from the West 

 Indies, presents very similar appearances to what 

 I have described in that from the Levant. We 

 have a similar accumulation of minute and perfect 

 Foraminifera, of the genera Rotalia, Polystomella, 

 Peneroplis, and the group of Miliolites ; a still 

 larger proportion of fragments of the same crea- 

 tures ; multitudes of minute corals, belonging the 

 groups Escharina and Celleporina ; several forms 

 of calcareous and siliceous spicula of sponges ; 

 some calcareous granules, probably derived from 

 the disintegration of the larger corals, and a small 

 admixture of siliceous particles, — apparently com- 

 mon sand. 



Specimens of the newer Pliocene deposits of 

 Barbadoes present corresponding results, with 

 the exception that the organisms are not so 

 numerous. The majority of the specimens which 

 I have examined, consist chiefly of semicrystalline 

 granules of Carbonate of Lime, which cannot be 



