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116 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
single detail of stratigraphic or geographic location, to the “ Miocene,” 
in which epoch all the fossils of Jamaica and the West Indies in general, 
with few exceptions? have been placed. In direct conflict with this 
opinion, another eminent author in the latest paleontologic publication 
on the island informs us that “No strictly Miocene strata have yet 
been discriminated in the Antillean region"? and refers the group 
hitherto so called to the upper Oligocene.* 
Another serious class of mistakes due to ignorance of the strati- 
graphic sequence has been the promulgation of erroneous deductions 
alleging the occurrence in the Antilles of certain forms entirely out of 
the age position which they were known to occupy elsewhere, such a8 
Zuropean Lower Chalk corals in the Jamaican Miocene,’ of European 
Cretaceous corals in the Miocene of Haiti,® and the occurrence of Eocen® 
Nummulites and Orbitoides in the Upper Miocene of Trinidad? and 
Miocene of Jamaica.) The last mentioned class of errors has had a far 
reaching influence in general paleontologic literature which will requir? 
time and patience to correct. 
Another source of confusion was the fact that writers ignored the 
existence in the island of any Tertiary formations of earlier age that 
the late Oligocene (Miocene of all authors previous to Dall), a theory 
which arose from the unfortunate errors of the English writers who 
confused the Bowden beds of the east near the top with the Yellow 
Limestone of the western parishes at the base of the Tertiaries 
Still another cause of misunderstanding was ignorance of tho fact 
which has been pointed out for the first time in our chapters on the 
stratigraphic conditions, that the great sea depths which separated the 
island from the continent during its earlier epochs of history — late 
Cretaceous and Eo-Tertiary times — constituted effective barriers 1? 
migration to the site of the littoral faunas of the continental borders. 
Owing to these barrier depths only a few or none of the shallow water 
1 Guppy, On the West Indian Tertiary Fossils, Geol. Mag., Decade II. vol. T 
pp. 404-411, London, 1874. 
2 The two species of Eocene corals from Port Maria and the Rudistes, 
8 Dall, Proc. U, S. National Museum, Washington, 1896, Vol. XIX. pp. 803-805: 
4 Tbid., p. 304. 
5 Duncan, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. London, Vol. XXI. p. 12, 1805. 
6 Gabb (Geology of Santo Domingo, p. 88) infers that these so called Cretaceot 
corals in the Haitian “ Miocene” are found in gravel of Cretaceous débris. 
7 Proc. Sci. Association of Trinidad, December, 1872. Port of Spain (1873): 
Geol. Magazine, Decade IT. Vol. I. p. 21, 1874, and elsewhere. 
8 Duncan, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. London, Vol. XIX. p. 453. 
