Messrs. Harrison ^ Jukes-Bro^vne — Geology of Barbados. 551 



Specimens were taken by Dr. Spencer, but they were unfortunately 

 destroyed by accident before they could be named. 



Finally, all the higher reefs are considered to be of Oligocene 

 age, because the author says that they show a decided dip to the 

 south-east, and asserts that some of the fossils obtained by ourselves 

 and others are Oligocene species. His own collections were destroyed 

 as above-mentioned, and his statements about the range of the 

 species identified by Professor Gregory ^ are confused and inaccurate. 

 Professor Gregory identified 13 species of Corals from high-level 

 localities, and of these 11 belong to recent species (10 being also 

 found in the low-level reefs of the island) ; one is a new species 

 for which the only other locality yet known is Ste. Croix in Trinidad, 

 and one {Lamellastrcsa Smytlii) is an extinct Antiguan species. 



It is true that several of the species found in Barbados occur also 

 in the Antiguan limestones which Dr. Spencer refers to the Oligocene, 

 but as they are also recent West Indian corals they cannot be cited 

 as evidence for the Oligocene age of the Barbadian reefs ; clearly 

 such species might occur in beds of any age from the Oligocene to 

 the present time. Cyphastrea costata is one of these ; Dr. Spencer 

 also quotes Astrcea barbadensis (Duck. & Mich.) as a link between 

 the ' Oligocene ' rocks of the two islands, but Professor Gregory has 

 identified this form with Orbicella acropora (Linn.), which is a recent 

 West Indian coral and is found also in the low-level reefs of Barbados. 



Dr. Spencer admits that the assemblage of corals obtained from 

 the high-level reefs is sufficient to prove the existence of Pleistocene 

 reefs at such levels, but having persuaded himself that there is 

 a mixture of Pleistocene and Oligocene forms among them, he 

 actually explains this supposed mixture by suggesting that the 

 Pleistocene forms came from patches of Pleistocene reef-rock lying 

 in hollows or pockets excavated out of Oligocene limestones ! 



As the corals examined by Professor Gregory came from nine 

 different high-level localities. Dr. Spencer would have us believe 

 that in each case a pocket was rifled, and not what he imagines to 

 be the main limestone mass. If he had been more careful in his 

 analysis of the coral species he would have discovered that the 

 single restricted Oligocene species was obtained from only one 

 locality, namely, Castle Grant, but he was so convinced that the 

 mass of the high-level limestones must be of Oligocene age that he 

 throws doubt on all the localities and on all the collections that 

 have been previously made, in spite of the fact that no essentially 

 Oligocene species were obtained from other localities. 



Further, one would have expected that before he put such 

 a suggestion into print he would have made very sure of his 

 facts ; in other words, that he would be prepared to point out 

 exactly where such pockets occur, what species of corals they 

 contain, and how the rock of the pockets differs from the hypo- 

 thetically older rock in which he says they lie. Dr. Spencer, 

 howevei', has not done this ; all he says on the subject is to bo 

 found in the two paragraphs which are quoted below — "I am 

 1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1895, vol. li, p. 255. 



