1863.] DUNCAN WEST INDIAN CORALS. 407 



A. Preliminary Remarks. 



I. Introduction. — This communication was intended to be a descrip- 

 tion of the Antiguan Fossil Corals in the Collection of the Geolo- 

 gical Society ; but it has been found necessary to include a notice of 

 those from other West Indian Islands, especially from San Domingo, 

 Montserrat, Jamaica, Barbadoes, Guadaloupe, Barbuda, and Tri- 

 nidad. 



The silicified Corals of Antigua have been well known to the 

 lapidary for many years, and they were brought under the notice 

 of this Society by Dr. Nugent in 1819. His description of the 

 geology of Antigua was accompanied by a beautiful collection of the 

 rocks and fossils of the island ; but although it produced some 

 correspondence, and Mr. Guilding forwarded specimens in after- 

 years, no attempt was made to describe or classify the organic re- 

 mains. Dr. Nugent's gift included some fossil Shells ; and as most 

 of them were evidently either of recent or very late Tertiary species, 

 the rest and the Zoaniharia were unfortunately determined by some 

 good authorities to be specifically identical with the forms now ex- 

 isting in the reefs around the island. 



A very superficial examination of the Corals sufficed to prove the 

 fallacy of this view, and by their careful study it was discovered 

 that, as a whole, they had not even a West Indian facies. It thus 

 became necessary to extend the scope of the investigation, and to 

 endeavour to connect the apparently anomalous distribution of the 

 fossil Corals in Antigua with the fossil Coral-fauna of islands whose 

 geology was better known. 



The collection of Corals from the limestone and Nivaje shale of 

 San Domingo, which was examined, in 1850, by Mr. Lonsdale, con- 

 tains forms the study of which resolved the aj>parent anomaly, as 

 those strata are said to be of the Miocene period. 



The admirable papers by Messrs. Moore, Morris, Lonsdale, and 

 Heneken, on the Heneken collection, contain interesting notices of 

 some of the genera of the fossil Corals of San Domingo ; but Mr. Lons- 

 dale had not time to devote to their complete study and description ; 

 the whole of the specimens, therefore, are described in this commu- 

 nication. 



The later Tertiary Corals of Jamaica and San Domingo have also 

 been examined, and will form the subject of a future communica- 

 tion ; but the earlier or mid-tertiary specimens, from the hard in- 

 clined limestone-beds of Jamaica, which were described years ago 

 by De la Beche, will be noticed now, as well as the few species in the 

 Geological Society's collection from Barbadoes, Barbuda, and Mont- 

 serrat. 



The literature of the fossil Corals of the West Indies is remarkably 

 scanty; and, excepting the results of the Survey of Trinidad by 

 Messrs. Wall and Sawkins*, the papers by Sir Henry De la Beche t 



* Report on the Geology of Trinidad ; or, Part I. of the West Indian Survey. 

 By G. P. Wall and J. G. Sawkins. 8vo, London, 1860. 



t " Remarks on the Geology of Jamaica," Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd ser. vol. ii. 

 p. 143. 



