424 Dr. C. T. Trechmann — 



Tertiary deposits, including tliose which contain the well-known 

 and familiar fossiliferoiis bed at Bowden, in the south-east corner 

 of the island. Anyone who examines a collection of these fossils 

 is struck by their excellent state of preservation, and by the com- 

 paratively recent appearance of the fauna. Nevertheless, Sawkins 

 placed the series below the White Limestone, and referred to them 

 as the Yellow Limestone or Bowden beds. Li the appendix ^ this 

 series of fossils is referred to by E. Etheridge, who regards them as 

 belonging to the Miocene or Middle Tertiary. On another page of 

 the report ^ a list of the Bowden mollusca, mixed with such Eocene 

 forms as Cerithium giganteum, and recent living shells, such as 

 Lucina 'pennsylvanica and Bulla striata, is given under the heading 

 of " Miocene Fossils ". 



It is almost certain that had it not been for the unfortunate death 

 in 1862 of Lucas Barrett, the palaeontologist of the Jamaica Survey, 

 who was accidentally drowned in a diving bell, both the Bowden 

 beds, the White Marls and the Yellow Limestone, would have been 

 ultimately referred to their proper positions. 



Sawkins was uncertain from the field evidence whether the position 

 of the White Marls in the parish of St. Elizabeth, in the south-west 

 of Jamaica, was above or below the White Limestone, but he con- 

 cluded that it was more probable that they lay above. The old 

 fossil and rock collection made by Sawkins and his fellow surveyors 

 is still preserved in glass wall-cases in the Jamaica Institute in 

 Kingston, but the specimens are very dusty and a good deal mixed 

 up. Apparently the great earthquake in 1907 did not improve 

 matters in this respect, though in the collection the Bowden fossils 

 are still labelled under the heading of Yellow Limestone. 



The position of the Bowden beds is discussed at full length by 

 R. T. Hill,^ who places them and other deposits in what is without 

 doubt their rightful position among the marginal formations later 

 than the great White Limestone. 



The Cretaceous and Tertiary Question. 



A more serious and less excusable error has, in my opinion, been 

 perpetuated by Hill in his assertion that Cretaceous and Tertiary 

 fossils occur associated together in certain formations in Jamaica. 

 To these he has applied the names Richmond, Cambridge, and 

 Catadupa formations. Hill refers to this matter repeatedly in his 

 book, and reiterates his positive conclusion that this mingling of the 

 faunas actually exists. 



Hill, after referring to the Jamaican Cretaceous, says : * " Several 

 Rudistes and two species of corals from these supposedly Cretaceous 



^ Reports on the Geology of Jamaica : J. G. Sawkins, F.G.S., and others. 

 Appendix by R. Etheridge, F.G.S., etc., 1869, p. 307. 



2 Ibid., p. 152. 



^ " The Geology and Physical Geography of Jamaica " : Bulletin of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, vol. xxxiv, 1899, p. 82. 



* Ibid., p. 123. 



