1863.] MOORE JAMAICAN TERTIARIES. 513 



opposite coasts of Chili and of Patagonia are distinct, though there 

 is free communication by Cape Horn. No negative evidence can 

 counterbalance positive facts ; and when it is recollected that the 

 summit of the Panama Railway is but 250 feet above the sea, — 

 that that inconsiderable height must have been less when the shelly 

 beds of Navy Port (contemporaneous with those of Jamaica and San 

 Domingo) were formed, — that some few of these Mollusca and Corals 

 are now living in the Pacific, — and that the nearest allied forms of 

 several more are to be found on the western side of America, it will be 

 admitted to be most probable that the complete separation of these 

 oceans did not take place until after the commencement of the Ter- 

 tiary period. 



P.S. — Dr. Duncan has kindly supplied me with the following 

 facts, which he has ascertained since the reading of his Memoir on 

 the Corals : — " The Foraminifer so common in the European Mio- 

 cene and in the San-Domingan beds, Amphistegina Haueri, is found 

 in abundance in the Jamaican Corals ; also the Coral sent over by 

 Mr. Barrett, and known as Montlivaltia ponderosa, is amongst a 

 collection from Travancore, with Trochocyathus cornucopia, a San- 

 Domingan and common Viennese Miocene species. The occurrence 

 in Jamaica of Astrocoenia decaphylla, a Gosau fossil, is very re- 

 markable ; but the same kind of thing occurs in San Domingo, where 

 Phylloccenia scidpta and a Barysmilia very little differing from B. 

 tuberosa, Reuss, both Gosau fossils, are noticed." 



Note on the Fossil Corals accompanying the Testacea from Jamaica. 

 By P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.G.S., &c. 



The majority of the Corals have been described in my communi- 

 cation, referred to by Mr. Moore, and published in this Number of the 

 Society's Journal, on the Fossil Corals of the West Indian Islands. 



1. Montlivaltia ponderosa, Edwards & Haime. 



Two specimens of this great simple Coral, which is found both in 

 the Miocene of Guadaloupe as well as in that of San Domingo, are 

 amongst the collection ; the San-Domingan specimen is in the British 

 Museum. 



2. Placocyathtjs Barrettii, nobis. "Fossil Corals of the West 



Indies," p. 437. PI. XVI. fig. 1. 



From San Domingo and Jamaica. 



3. Placotrochus alveolus, nobis. "Fossil Corals of the West 



Indies," p. 438. PI. XVI. fig. 2. 



4. Astrocoenia decaphylla, Michelin, sp. 



The specimen can only be considered as a very slight variety of 

 the well-known Astraea decaphylla, Michelin, of Gosau. The Astro- 

 coenia omata of Turin and Antigua is only distantly allied. Astrocoenia 

 decaphylla is a very marked species, and its occurrence in the 



