CORAL REEFS. APPENDIX. 227 



win's arguments in its favor; and it has found new support in 

 the facts from the Challenger's soundings of Tahiti that had 

 heen put in array against it, and strong corroboration in the 

 facts from the West Indies." The main points contained in 

 this paper are such as have already been considered, and re- 

 quire no lengthy discussion in this place. Prof. Dana is em- 

 phatic in his belief that subsidence (preceded by elevation) 

 was the condition which permitted " of the making of the 

 Florida, Bahama and other West India coral reefs," a view in 

 which lie is distinctly opposed to Mr. Agassiz. The evidences 

 for this subsidence in a comparatively recent period are found 

 in the mammalian remains of apparently Quaternary age 

 which have been discovered in Cuba and Anguilla, and which, 

 from their special characters, point to a former connection 

 between these islands and the mainland. The belief in 

 a connection between the Windward Islands and the South 

 American continent has also been held by Cope and Pomel. 

 Dr. Supan, in reviewing Prof. Dana's paper (Petermanns Mit- 

 teilungcn, vol. 32, pt. 1, Litteraturbericht, p. 5, 1886), criticizes 

 the views relative to subsidence in the Floridian region, 

 since, it is claimed, even if direct connection did exist between 

 the West Indian Islands and the southern continent, there is 

 no proof that this connection extended northward to the 

 North American continent; and he further denies without, 

 however, giving any reasons for this .denial that there ever 

 was any (Quaternary?) connection between the West Indies 

 and North America. This notion is probably based upon the 

 old idea (advanced by L. Agassiz and Le Conte) of the making 

 of the Floridian peninsula, in which no movements of either 

 elevation or subsidence were supposed to have been involved. 

 Since, however, this conception has proved to be a myth there 

 is no further reason, except in so far as the case may be sup- 

 ported by fact, to adhere to the old views of continental (or 

 oceanic) stability in this region. My own observations have 

 conclusively proved a peninsular uplift as late as the Post- 

 Pliocene period, and extending as far south as Lake Okeecho- 



