98 BULLETIN OF THE 



following deep-sea forms : Paracyathus DeFilippiij Caryophyllia 

 maculatay Lophohelia exigua, Madracis asperula, Lophosmilia rotuncU- 

 folia^ Aste7'osmilia prolifera, Balanopliyllia Jioridana and palifera^ of 

 which the upper limit is between 30 and 40 fathoms. 



For other seas the case would be somewhat different. In the Pacific 

 and Indian Oceans, for instance, simple corals, as Flabellum and some 

 other Turbinolidse, some Balanophyllise, and numerous large Fungise, 

 occupy the shoal or moderately shoal water region, and the prevailing 

 families are different also. 



Nevertheless, the West Indian bathymetrical distribution seems to 

 offer a fair criterion for the approximate determination of the depth at 

 which some of the strata not lower than the cretaceous have been 

 deposited. In older formations the forms are too different for com- 

 parison. 



We can thus safely say that some of the miocene, pliocene, and 

 pleistocene strata of Messina, of which the fossils have been so carefully 

 described by Seguenza, were deposited in a depth averaging 450 fathoms, 

 and ranging from about 200 to 700 fathoms. This average is deduced 

 from the eight principal species. Two species of Eupsammida) would 

 however give considerably less. The species identical, or very nearly 

 related, used for this result, are given in the table ; some of them still 

 inhabit the Mediterranean, but others have been found living only in 

 the West Indian deep-sea. Some of the miocene beds of the vicinity of 

 Turin are also deep-sea deposits. 



In the neighborhood of Vienna it is easy to see by means of Keuss's 

 excellent monographs that great fluctuations of depth have taken place 

 between the deposition of the different strata. The tables appended to 

 Reuss's Memoir on the Austro-Hungarian Miocene show very well that the 

 beds called " Oberer Tegel," for instance, in which there are Astrseans in 

 abundance allied with Porites, are shoal-water deposits ; and that the 

 strata called '* Badener Tegel," particularly at Ruditz, were formed on 

 the bottom of deep water, the corals found in them being chiefly 

 Turbinolidse, Oculinidse, and Eupsammidse. 



With regard to the West Indian tertiaries, and more particularly the 

 miocene beds, a careful discrimination of the corals of the different 

 strata, such as we have in the papers of Reuss and Seguenza, seems to 

 be still wanting. Reef corals and solitary species are quoted as from 

 the same localities in Prof. Duncan's papers, and in a fine collection 

 from San Domingo, presented to the Museum by the late W. M. Gabb. 

 In the latter the different matrix in which some of the specimens are 



