President's Address. 23 
out by the discovery by Dr J. W. Gregory, in the Radiolarian 
marl, of a true deep-sea Urchin, a species of Cystechinus, the 
few modern forms of this genus inhabiting water of from 
1000 to 2000 fathoms in depth (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., 
vol. xlv., p. 640, 1889). 
Others of the West Indian Islands have been shown to. 
contain deposits similar to those of Barbados. We are, 
therefore, justified in concluding that in the West Indian 
region we have an area which in late Tertiary times was 
covered by a truly “deep” sea, in the strictest sense of this 
term, but which has undergone elevation within Quaternary 
time, and is now partially in the condition of dry land. 
We have thus a clear and undeniable instance of the 
occurrence of genuine deep-sea deposits forming a portion of 
our existing dry land; and this fact appears to me to be 
impossible of reconciliation with the doctrine of “the per- 
manence of the ocean-basins.” It is a case in which a single 
positive proof, even if it stood absolutely alone, outweighs 
any accumulation of merely negative evidence; since the 
essence of the theory in question is that no deep-sea floor 
has been raised above the level of the sea since the begin- 
ning of Cambrian time, and that, therefore, we cannot have 
any deep-sea deposits in any portion of our existing dry 
lands. It may be added, however, that, as a matter of fact, 
the case of Barbados does no¢t stand alone. We have already 
evidence of a very similar sequence of phenomena in other 
regions (as, for example, in the Solomon Islands); and we 
have every reason to believe all the known Radiolarian 
deposits of Tertiary age mark the position of former deep 
seas, while we may extend this conclusion with great con- 
fidence to the Radiolarian cherts of much more ancient 
geological periods. 
It may be added, finally, that it is quite probable that 
there are other rock-formations in the dry lands, apart from 
Radiolarian oozes, or rocks representing the abyssal clays, 
which are really of deep-water origin. Though the Radio- 
larian muds and abyssal clays are the most characteristic 
deep-sea deposits of the present day, it does not in the least 
follow that corresponding deposits must always have been 
