THE WEST INDIAN FAUNA. 19 



in the West Indian miocene is not more anomalous than is the 

 occurrence in the deep water of the West Indian seas of living 

 species which perhaps characterized the Sicilian tertiaries. The 

 beds, forming raised terraces such as those of the Barbados and 

 of other islands of the Caribbean, though they seem to be the 

 direct continuation of the coral beds now growing, yet also give 

 us the measure of the physical changes which must have taken 

 place in the West Indian regions about the end of the creta- 

 ceous, at the time of the separation of the Pacific Ocean and 

 the Caribbean Sea. 



The absence of single simple species of corals in the Caribbean 

 district within the reef area distinguishes this fauna at once 

 from that of the reef regions of the Pacific and Indian oceans, 

 in which are found in shoal or moderately shoal water several 

 species of simple corals, like Flabellum, many Fungidae, and 

 others, besides genera and families not represented in the West 

 Indies. Yet the bathymetrical distribution of the West Indian 

 species gives us an approximate idea of the depths at which 

 some of the fossiliferous strata of the cretaceous and tertiaries 

 containing corals were probably deposited. 



Pourtales, who thoroughly studied the deep-sea corals of 

 Florida, was of the opinion that some of the miocene, pliocene, 

 and pleistocene strata of Messina, of which the fossils have been 

 so carefully described by Seguenza, were deposited in a depth 

 averaging 450 fathoms, and ranging from about 200 to 700 

 fathoms. In the neighborhood of Vienna we may trace from 

 Reuss's monographs the fluctuations of depth which have taken 

 place between the deposition of the different strata. The mio- 

 cene beds, in which there are numerous astrseans associated 

 with Porites, are shoal-water deposits; while the strata contain- 

 ing Turbinolidse, Oculinidse, and Eupsammidse were formed in 

 deep water. 



The West Indian tertiary corals are not sufficiently known to 

 permit us to reconstruct from them alone the past history of the 

 ancient Caribbean seas. Duncan observed that, on some islands, 

 such as Antigua and Trinidad, only reef species flourished. This 

 shows conclusively that in other places there must be deep-sea 

 deposits of the tertiary period which have not yet been brought 



