NOTES ON THE REPTILES OF BARBADOS. 
By Coronet H. W. Feiupen. 
Tue island of Barbados emerges from the Atlantic Ocean, 
some hundred miles to the eastward of the chain of the Lesser 
Antilles, being separated from the islands of St. Lucia and 
St. Vincent, its nearest neighbours, by an oceanic depression of 
not less than a thousand fathoms; to the southward, between 
Barbados and the continent of South America, similar depths 
are found, whilst to the. eastward it rapidly descends into the 
profound abyss of the Atlantic. Geologically speaking, Bar- 
bados is a true oceanic island in the sense that it has not been 
connected with a continental area since the introduction of its 
present flora and fauna. A remarkable feature in the formation 
of Barbados is that no volcanic rock, so far as I am aware, 
protrudes through the basement series, which consist of sedi- 
mentary rocks, which are supposed to be either late Eocene or 
Miocene. Their exact age has not been satisfactorily deter- 
mined, but they will in all probability be found to correlate 
with the rocks of Trinidad and the South American continent. 
Resting unconformably on these rocks are deep beds of true 
Oceanic ooze, similar, we may suppose, to those which cover the 
floor of the Caribbean and Atlantic areas, and on these oceanic 
oozes the coral covering of the modern island of Barbados has 
been built. It is therefore impossible to escape from the con- 
clusion that the older Eocene or Miocene rocks, which now form 
the basement series of the island, must have participated in the 
prodigious downthrow of the Caribbean area, to a depth of at 
least 1000 fathoms, in order to bring the floor of the ocean into 
harmony with its present depths. By no other train of reasoning 
can we account for the vast accumulations of oceanic ooze now 
resting on the oldest rocks of Barbados. When the process of 
upheaval which brought the modern island of Barbados into 
existence was sufficiently advanced, the reef-forming Zoantharia 
commenced building the coral-reefs, which, in the shape of 
coralline limestone, now forms a capping over six-sevenths of 
the island, down to the sea-level, beyond which the same process 
of reef-building is still proceeding. The only portion of the 
island not covered by coralline limestone is the north-east 
