SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 3 j^_ 



*acters, ' which will probably serve to correct some erro- 

 neous opinions respecting the nature and habits of the ani- 

 mals of which these shells were the dwellings. One of the 

 specimens contains a nearly perfect shell, longitudinally 

 divided so as to display the two ridges, with the numerous 

 septa and chambers. From an examination of the specie 

 mens, and by comparing them with the observations he has 

 before had an opportunity of making, Mr. Parkinson is of 

 opinion, that the structure of the shell of the hippuritesis 

 such, as would enable the animal to raise itself to the sur- 

 face of the water. This opinion is in opposition to that of 

 Mr. Denys de Montfort, and most of the French orycto- 

 logists, who consider the hippurites as belonging to what, 

 they term pelagian shells, or such as constantly inhabit the 

 bottom of the sea, never rising to the surface, or appearing 

 on the shore; and therefore, that there is no reason to sup- 

 pose them belonging to animals which are now ex f inct ; but 

 only, that their recent analogues have not yet been brought 

 to view. 



June the 19th. A paper by Joseph Skey, M. D., en- j g j aB a ef _ 

 titled " Some remarks upon the Structure of Barbadoes badoes. 

 as connected with specimens of its Rocks," communicated 

 by Arthur Aikin, Esq., sec. was read ; together with a note 

 by Mr. Parkinson on some of the specimens presented by 

 Dr. Skey. The island of Barbadoes is totally unlike those 

 immediately near it, both in structure and in appearance,'the 

 land rises in a gentle swell from the coast towards the middle 

 of the island, except in one small district: its highest hills 

 do not exceed 800 or 900 feet, and their general direction is 

 nearly N. W. and S. E. Upon the N. Eastern coast the 

 shores are bolder than in the other parts of the island, as is 

 the case in many of the islands of those seas. Barbadoes is ' 

 composed of limestone, in great part of fossil madrepores, 

 and traces of organic structure are to be met with in almost 

 every part of the island, more particularly along the whole 

 of the S. and S. W. coast. The land, which when seen from 

 the sea, appears to rise uniformly from the coast, is observed 

 on a nearer view, to consist of successive terraces rising in 

 two or three gradations, one above the other, each forming 

 a plain of a quarter o» half a mile in breadth* and terminated 



