552 Messrs. Harrison 8f Jukes-Browne — Geology of Barbados. 



inclined to explain the occurrence of the seven identical species 

 at the higher levels and at Bath, as having been obtained from 

 remnants of the newer formation filling hollows in the eroded 

 surface of the older high-level limestones. This feature may be 

 seen in ascending the western side of the island, where pockets 

 rich in corals form a contrast with the prevailing scarcity of organic 

 remains of the older formation " (p. 359). 



" Without entering into the question of what terraces are due 

 to marine erosion, leaving sea-cliffs in the rear of them, and what 

 are constructional from the building up of reefs, it may be said that 

 these deposits of recent coral-species are wide-spread over the 

 surface, not merely below the altitude of 165 feet, but possibly 

 (in part at least) at the higher levels, where pockets of coral-masses 

 containing recent species occur" (p. 362). 



It will be noticed that Dr. Spencer contents himself with stating 

 that such pockets exist on the western side of the island ; he does 

 not say where, nor at what levels, nor what species of corals they 

 contain. He adduces no evidence to show that the pockets he saw 

 are of vpidely different age from the surrounding rock.^ 



Further, he does not offer any evidence to prove that the inclined 

 beds in the railway cutting are of the same age as the high-level 

 limestones, nor any evidence that either the former or the latter 

 are of the same age as the rock near the Cathedral which yielded 

 species of Stylophora and Astroccenia. Yet he does not hesitate to 

 tell us that these three sets of beds belong to one series, that this 

 series is of Oligocene age, and that it belongs to what he calls the 

 * Antiguan formation.' We think that further comment on these 

 points is needless. 



We next address ourselves to the attempt made by Dr. Spencer 

 to establish an intermediate formation between the rocks w^hich he 

 regards as Oligocene and those which he admits to be Pleistocene. 

 Here, again, his methods are just as unsatisfactory, and are not 

 calculated to inspire confidence in his stratigraphical work. 



The beds which he refers to his ' Ragged Point Series ' are 

 nowhere stated to be more than eight feet thick, and no fossils 

 are recorded from them, so that he starts by erecting a few scrappy 

 local deposits into a ' series,' without a single fossil to show whether 

 it is of marine or terrestrial origin. He mentions several places 

 ■where marls containing pebbles of older limestone rest unconformably 

 upon such limestone (our reef-rock), but there is nothing to prove 

 that these marls are marine deposits. They might be Pleistocene 

 rainwash for all the evidence he gives, but we cannot assert them 

 to be such without special examination of them. 



We are quite prepared to admit that the mechanical deposit shown 

 in his Fig. 1 must be of later date than the limestone on which it rests, 

 but we cannot accept his dictum that it is older than the reefs which 

 he allows to be Pleistocene. He only mentions one place where 

 he believes such a superposition to be visible ; this is near Bath, 



1 A coral-reef is a composite mass of rock, and portions of it are often differently 

 made up and are more fossiliferous than other parts of the same reef. 



