14 SHALLOW-WATER FORAMINIFERA OF TORTUGAS REGION. 
RELATION OF THE TORTUGAS FAUNA TO THOSE 
OF OTHER REGIONS. 
While at Key West, opportunity was taken to make two col- 
lections of bottom material among the keys. A comparison of these 
with the bottom samples from the Tortugas shows that some of the 
species common at Key West are not represented in the Tortugas 
collection. This shows the change even in this short distance. A 
comparison with the fauna of the north shore of Jamaica and that 
from the Bahamas shows differences in all these localities, although 
conditions of temperature, etc., are not great. It tends to show that 
the Foraminifera are not universally distributed, but even within 
a limited area have a definite distribution. 
Many of the Tortugas species are closely related to those of the 
general Indo-Pacific region. Some of the genera in this collection 
are here recorded for the first time from the Atlantic. These are 
known from various parts of the Indo-Pacific in warm, shallow waters. 
Whether their distribution in the West Indian region is wide remains 
to be shown by further work. It is certain that in general the 
foraminiferal fauna of the Tortugas and that of the shallow water of 
the West Indian region also are much more closely related to the 
Indo-Pacific than to any other part of the Atlantic. 
This fauna of the Tortugas is, again, more or less closely related 
to the fossil faunas of the Tertiary of the Coastal Plain of the United 
States. Some of the relations, especially with the Lower Oligocene 
of Mississippi and Alabama, are very interesting and will be made 
use of when the fauna of the Lower Oligocene is published. 
STATIONS AND DATA. 
While at the Tortugas, nearly 50 stations were occupied, and in 
most cases bottom samples were obtained. Of these, 20 were 
selected for detailed study, giving very well the varied conditions 
of the region from the warm, almost stagnant water of the moat at 
Fort Jefferson on Garden Key and the lagoon on Long Key to the 
quiet waters of greater depth, such as Bird Key harbor, the waters 
of the channels among the keys, and the open water outside the 
reefs. An extension into water of 50 or 100 fathoms would greatly 
increase the number of species, but the present list of species and 
varieties is very fair for such a limited region in shallow water. 
This compares with species from the north coast of Jamaica, 
although the latter represented a very few stations in comparison. 
The accompanying map of the region shows the location of the 
stations given here, and also the data for these stations. 
14 
