258 NOTICE OF THE OOLITIC FORMATION IN AMERICA, 



Havanna were from Mens. Poey, under whose charge the Botanic Garden has 

 been placed; those from Matanzas were from my friend Louis Vanuxem, Esq., 

 and are from deposits of a more recent formation, being of a white limestone. 



It is evident that Baron Humboldt had this formation in his mind in making 

 the following observations : — " I thought I recognised in the equinoctial zone 

 of America the Jura formation in several whitish limestones, partly lithogra- 

 phic, with a fracture smooth and dull, or very flat conchoid al. These are the 

 limestones of the cavern of Caripe, (S. E. of Cumana,) the shore of Nueva 

 Barcelona, (Venezuela,) the Isle of Cuba, (between the Havanna and Bata- 

 bano; between Trinidad and the boca del Rio Guaurabo,) and the central 

 mountains of Mexico, (plains of Salamanca and the defile of Batas.") 



The specimens now described and figured are not all from the same group, 

 and with so small a number it would be difficult, if not impossible, to arrange 

 them correctly in their exact superposition. These are, however, sufficient to 

 confirm the impression of the distinguished traveller that the Jura formation 

 (Oolite) existed in Cuba. In another paper I have shown that the lower mem- 

 bers of the Oolitic group are identified in New Granada. Future observations, 

 with more extended means than a few specimens of a small number of species 

 affords, will, I have little doubt, enable the geologist to make out the whole 

 Oolitic group in America to be similar in its characters to that of Europe. In 

 the few specimens under examination it will be perceived that the generic 

 forms coincide with those found in the Oolite of England; and it is a matter 

 of doubt with me if the specific characters of some be not identically the same. 

 Thus the Terehratula, which I propose to call Cubaensis, seems to me so closely 

 to resemble a Terebratula of which I have specimens from Dundry, in Eng- 

 land, that I should not now propose a separate place for it, but that it may be 

 the more readily distinguished and referred to. The fracture of a Belemnite 

 among the specimens received presents no characters which can be observed 

 different from those of the Oolite of England, and, therefore, will not be far- 

 ther noticed. 



De la Beche on the Geology of Jamaica (Geol. Soc. Trans., Vol. II., New 

 Series) mentions a "compact white limestone formation" containing "organic 

 remains, generally casts," which he places, with some doubt, with the " Supe- 

 rior, or Tertiary Rocks." Among the forms, he gives, in his list, the Nautilus, 



