Vol.63.] THE CORAL-ROCKS OF BARBADOS. 319 



coral-limestone that we described on p. 223 of the above-quoted 

 paper as l Beach-rock ' ; for, if we had done so, it might not have 

 become necessary to write this paper. 



In a paper published in the Quarterly Journal for August 1902 

 (vol. lviii, pp. 354-67), Prof. J. W. Spencer drew the attention of 

 the Society to his view that the coral-limestones of Barbados do not 

 form a continuous series ; that the lowest parts of the limestone- 

 terraces in various places are of an older formation, ascribed by 

 him to the Oligocene, than are the upper parts ; and that, over a 

 distance of several miles, these older rocks dip at angles of from 

 12° to 20° south-eastward, while they are unconformably covered 

 by horizontal deposits of Pleistocene and recent age. 



The acceptance or not of Prof. Spencers views is a matter of 

 some importance, as, if they are correct, the accepted age of every 

 rock-group in the island must be altered by them ; while, in the 

 case of the coral-rock formation, a series of disconnected convulsions 

 of Nature must take the place of what has hitherto been regarded 

 as an orderly succession. "We therefore pointed out on pp. 550-54 

 of the 'Geological Magazine' for 1902, the various reasons which 

 led us to doubt the existence of high-dipping limestones of 

 Oligocene age among the coral-rocks of Barbados, and expressed our 

 hope that I might be able to re-examine these strata in company 

 with Prof. Spencer. Unfortunately, outbreaks of smallpox in 

 Barbados, and later in British Guiana, gave rise to vexatious 

 quarantine-restrictions which prevented me from doing so. 



In August, 1906, I sojourned in Barbados for three weeks, and 

 as much of that time as I was able I devoted to examining in 

 detail the areas (and more especially the various sections and 

 exposures) described by Prof. Spencer. This was rendered some- 

 what difficult, as Prof. Spencer had in some instances used names 

 other than those adopted for nearly two and a half centuries to 

 designate well-known localities. 



I was not able to make full collections of the fossil corals in 

 the sections that I visited, but I have made such arrangements as 

 to ensure this being done. Hence, in this paper, I deal principally 

 with the stratigraphical evidence as to beds described by Prof. 

 Spencer as being high-dipping and of Oligocene age. 



I made several traverses starting from the middle of the island, 

 a little north of Mount Misery, to The Crane on the south-eastern 

 coast. This direction corresponds to that of the dip of the beds 

 described by Prof. Spencer ; and I passed several times across what, 

 according to that authority, should have been their strike. I 

 found, however, no evidence of the existence of beds dipping uni- 

 formly to the south-east at angles of from 12° to 20° ; though I 

 found several exposures (all of which, with the exceptions of Mapps' 

 Quarry and Pollard's marl-hole, I had visited while resident in the 

 island) showing the presence of portions of the coral-rocks in which 

 the bedding is not horizontal or at very low angles. As doubtless 

 these are the sections on which Prof. Spencer based his views as 



