144 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



count for the formation of the Great Barrier Eeef has been received as 

 an elementary axiom in the " leading Australian handbooks," is surely 

 no evidence that the theory is correct, as Kent seems to imply. Nor is 

 the separation of New Guinea from Australia in the middle tertiary a proof 

 that the existing coral reefs of the Tories Strait began to grow at that 

 period, nor does the fact that the marine areas of Australia have 

 undergone "a vast movement of subsidence" (during the cretaceous 

 period) have any bearing on the subsidence needed in our own epoch to 

 account for the formation of reefs. Kent sums up his views as follows : 

 " The foregoing geological evidence [of subsidence in tertiarj' and creta- 

 ceous times] being trustworthy and true, the construction of the Great 

 Barrier Beef of Australia under conditions of subsidence, and in accord- 

 ance with the original hypothesis of Mr. Darwin, is proved." A state- 

 ment from which we beg to differ in toto, for the reasons set forth in 

 this account of the Great Barrier Beef. 



Cambridge, September 1, 1897. 



NOTICE. 



This Bulletin has been in type since last September. Owing 



to my absence in Fiji, its publication has been delayed to the 



present time. 



Alexander Agassiz. 



Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., 

 March 29, 1898. 



