1849.] MOORE ON TERTIARY BEDS IN SAN DOMINGO. 39 



«, a, in the median plane, and the investing layers, i, b, above and 

 below. Magnified 90 diara. 

 Fig. 37. Portion of the surface of Orbitolites Prattii, viewed as an opake object, 

 showing the absence of any definite indications of cells or chambers. 

 Magnified 30 diam. 



May 16, 1849. 



C. Bagot Lane, Esq., C.E., was elected a Fellow of the Society. 



The following communications were read : — 



1 . On some Tertiary Beds in the Island of San Domingo : from 

 Notes hy J. S. Heniker, Esq., loith Remarks on the Fossils, by 

 J. Carrick Moore, Esq., Sec.G.S. 



In the north-eastern part of the island of San Domingo, at an average 

 distance of about 30 miles from the sea, runs a range of mountains 

 with an east and west direction, consisting of mica schist. Between 

 this range and the northern sea an extensive tertiary formation occurs, 

 being about 30 miles broad, and at least 100 miles in length from east 

 to west. It is intersected by several rivers, the principal of which is 

 the Yaqui, on which stands the town of San Jago, distant from the 

 sea about 20 miles, and elevated more than 2000 feet above it. The 

 rivers have cut narrow channels through the strata, which are thus 

 exposed in perpendicular cliffs often 200 feet high. These cliffs near 

 the bottom consist of a bluish sandy shale, whence Mr. Heniker ex- 

 tracted the greater part of the fossils shortly to be mentioned. Higher 

 up the beds become more argillaceous, and contain but few shells, 

 with some corals. This formation is overlaid conformably by tufa- 

 ceous limestone, which has suffered much denudation, and forms a 

 low range of arid hills, about 500 feet high, resembling chalk downs 

 in their rounded outline, and scantily covered by a dwarfish vegeta- 

 tion. At the foot of these hills, in loose sand covering the shelly 

 deposits, Mr. Heniker found fishes' teeth. These formations dip 

 gently to the N.N.W., and intermediate between them and the sea a 

 red sandstone is found, dipping also to the N.N.W., but at a much 

 more considerable angle. Mr. Pleniker has not been able to ascer- 

 tain its relation to the limestone and shale, but he suspects it to be 

 older. No organic remains are found in it. From the shales and the 

 sand which caps them Mr. Heniker procured the following fossils : 

 — fishes' teeth, a crab, 84 species of moUusca, an echinoderm, 18 spe- 

 cies of coral, numerous foraminifera, dicotyledonous wood. 



Sir Philip Egerton, who obUgingly examined the fishes' teeth for 

 me, states that they belong to the Carcharodon megalodon^ Agassiz, 

 found in the crag, the Malta beds, the miocene formations of Ame- 

 rica, &c. 



The Corals have been laid before Mr. Lonsdale, who has not had 

 time to examine them in detail : he however informs me that they 

 belong to 1 8 species ; some of them, apparently taken from a super- 



