Geologists* Association. 33 



Islands.— Part IV. Conclusion." By P. Martin Duncan, M.B., 

 Sec. G.S. 



In this communication the author concluded his series of memoirs 

 on the Fossil Corals of the West Indies with a description of the 

 Miocene corals from St. Croix, Trinidad, and with some supple- 

 mentary remarks on the species described in his former papers from 

 St. Domingo, Jamaica, and Antigua, including notices of new 

 species from those islands. He also gave a complete and revised 

 list of all the fossil corals he had described from the West Indies, 

 including five species from the Cretaceous strata ; four species and 

 one variety from Eocene deposits ; and one hundred and two species 

 and twenty-six varieties from the Miocene formation, making a total 

 of one hundred and eleven species and twenty-seven varieties. Of 

 the Miocene species eleven still exist, namely, six in the Caribbean 

 sea only, three common to that sea and the Pacific Ocean, and two 

 in the Pacific Ocean and Ked Sea, but not in the Caribbean. 

 Twelve other species are common to European deposits and the 

 West Indian Miocene, ten being of the same age in both hemi- 

 spheres, while two occur in the Lower Chalk in Europe. These 

 twenty -three species being deducted from those of the West Indian 

 Miocene, a large characteristic fauna still remains ; and Dr. Duncan 

 showed that the recent representatives of the characteristic genera 

 composing it are for the most part inhabitants of the Pacific and 

 Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Australian waters, and that 

 their Tertiary congeners are found in Europe, Australia, Java, and 

 Sinde. Of the fourteen genera thus enumerated, eight are not repre- 

 sented in the recent coral-fauna of the Caribbean sea. 



Jamaica has yielded the only known Cretaceous and Eocene 

 corals; and Dr. Duncan stated that the former are identical with 

 European Lower Chalk species ; and that the latter are similar to 

 species from the London Clay, the Bracklesham Beds, and the 

 Paris Basin. 



Dr. Duncan then mentioned several curious facts in the distribu- 

 tion of the West Indian corals, both fossil and recent, and especially 

 the circumstance that whilst Jamaica, San Domingo, and Guada- 

 loupe present solitary species, mixed with those indicating shallow 

 water and a reef, Antigua and Trinidad offer for consideration only 

 reef-species. In conclusion, the author drew attention to the con- 

 firmation by subsequent discoveries of his theory of an Atlantic 

 archipelago, which he had put forward in his earlier papers. 



Geologists' Association, University College, London. — On 

 December 12th, 1867, Mr. Henry Woodward delivered a lecture to 

 this association, *' On Eecent and Fossil Crustacea," in which he 

 pointed out the great interest attaching to this group, not only on 

 account of its wide geographical distribution, but also its early ap- 

 pearance in geological time. He considered that the division Arti- 

 culata was, probably, almost of as great zoological value as the 

 sub-kingdom Vertehrata : that, in fact, in palaeozoic times, the repre- 

 sentatives of the Articulata fulfilled the functions afterwards per- 



VOL. V. — NO. XLIII. 3 



