HILL: GEOLOGY OF JAMAICA. 125 
scribes them as “Orbitoidal limestones, which agree with the descrip- 
tions of the Claiborne beds by Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Dana.” ’ In 
two other places he referred them to tho Mid-Tertiary period, on strati- 
graphic grounds, because they occurred between the Eocene (our 
Richmond beds) and the White Limestone, the latter of which he (Saw- 
kins) erroneously considered Pliocene.? These original opinions on the 
Part of the field workers to the effect that the beds were Eocene were 
abandoned by the authors of the Summaries of the Jamaican Reports, 
Who, writing in England, confused the identity of the (Cambridge) Yel- 
low Limestone underlying the great White Limestone Series (Montpelier 
and Moneague formations) with the Bowden Oligocene beds overlying it, 
and erroneously supposed the latter to be the base instead of the top of 
the White Limestones. In this manner the identity of the Cambridge Eo- 
Cene faunas was confused with that of the Oligocene, and the age of the 
Whole Jamaican sequence above the Richmond so jumbled that it has 
become impossible to obtain a correct knowledge of it from the literature 
Concerning the island, even that of the most recent writers, like Jukes- 
Browne and Harrison, who have said that the upper division of the Mio- 
tene “is doubtless the true place of the Jamaican Yellow Limestone.” > 
So confusing has the literature become that of lato years there has 
been a tendency to deny that the rocks of the Eocene were present in 
the West Indies. The most recent summary of these formations * omits 
à in this region with the doubtful exception of the Manzanilla beds of 
Trinidad. One gratifying result of our researches is the presentation of 
additional proof that the Eocene period is represented in Jamaica, not 
Mone by the doubtful Richmond beds, but also by the Cambridge forma- 
tion, and that these collectively constitute one of the most distinctive 
and important formations, not only of this island, but of all the great 
Antilles, Barbados, Trinidad, and perhaps the Windward Islands, as 
Will be shown in later pages. 
The Richmond Beds. 
In the Richmond beds animal remains are excecdingly rare, A 
Natica, a Turritella, and what is probably a large Scalaria associated 
With two doubtful species of supposedly Eocene corals described by 
unean, have been found in the conglomerate of Point Haldano, at 
! Jamaican Reports, p. 224. 2 Tbid., pp. 130, 188. 
® Quart, Jour. Geol. Soc, London, Vol. XLVII. pp. 197, 242. 
4 Dall, “Descriptions of Tertiary Fossils from the Antillean Region.” Proc, 
Ws. National Museum, Vol. XIX. pp. 808, 805. Washington, 1896. 
