INTRODUCTION. 



The series of memoirs contained in the present volume has resulted 

 from a minor grant made to me by the Carnegie Institution of Wash- 

 ington in the autumn of 1913 for the study of the stratigraphic geology 

 and of the fossil corals and associated organisms in several of the smaller 

 West Indian Islands and from the authority given me by the Director 

 of the United States Geological Survey to make the investigations as a 

 part of my official work. The objects of these studies were stated in 

 my first progress report, 1 as follows : 



(1) To study the stratigraphic geology of the islands, and to make paleon- 

 tologic collections with special reference to the stratigraphic occurrence of the 

 fossils, so as to establish a proper basis for correlating the geologic formations 

 in the islands with those of the southeastern United States and Panama. 



(2) To make additional collections of fossil corals in order to present a more 

 comprehensive and exact account of the successive coral faunas antecedent to 

 the living fauna than was possible with the material already available, and 

 thus trace the history of the development of the coral faunas through Tertiary 

 time up to and including the Recent fauna. 



(3) To study the physiography of the islands in order to get a basis for 

 making deductions as to how the conditions were brought about under which 

 the living coral reefs were formed. 



I left Washington during the latter part of January 1914, and spent 

 the month of February and most of March in the islands of Antigua, 

 Saint Bartholomew, Anguilla, Saint Martin, and Saint Christopher. 

 While engaged in field work I received a great deal of help from the 

 officials of the respective islands and will particularly mention Sir H. 

 Hesketh Bell, then governor of the Leeward Islands, and T. L. Rox- 

 borough, then administrator of Saint Christopher. Rather large collec- 

 tions of fossils resulted from my efforts and they have now been com- 

 pletely or almost completely described and illustrated. Five papers 

 are herewith presented; my own account of the fossil coral faunas is 

 almost finished; Dr. Robert T.Jackson has nearly completed his memoir 

 on the fossil echinoids; and Dr. Paul Bartsch intends to submit a paper 

 on the fossil and living land Mollusca of the Leeward and Virgin Islands. 



The accompanying papers and those nearly complete supply the 

 foundation for the correlation of the different geologic events in the 

 West Indies, and they will be followed by descriptions of local geologic 

 details and an account of the general development of the region, in 

 correlation with the geologic events that were taking place in the 

 southeastern United States and Central America. Most of the manu- 

 script relating to local details and geologic interpretation is already 

 written and might have been complete had the entrance of the United 

 States into the World War not necessitated diversion to other duties. 



1 Carnegie Institution of Washington Year Book No. 13, p. 358, 1915. 



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