Vol. 63.~] THE CORAL-ROCKS OF BARBADOS. 333 



500 feet above the sea, where there are local dips of from 6° to 8° 

 eastward. 



I examined carefully a large number of road-cuttings and quarries 

 in the south-western parts of the island, at elevations of 200 feet 

 and less, from Husbands, about 4 miles north of Bridgetown, to 

 Paragon, some 7 miles south-east of that city. 



Over this area in no place did I detect beds in the limestone 

 showing well-marked true dips. The mass of the coral-rock is 

 everywhere almost horizontal, or shows low dips of 2° to 3° in various 

 directions. The only exception that I know to this in the district 

 is on the shore, near and to the north of Walmer Lodge, where some 

 thin recent beds of consolidated coral-debris and calcareous sand, 

 lying between high- and low-water marks, dip at considerable angles 

 to the westward. But all over the low area to the west of Waterford 

 current-beddings are prevalent. Thin beds of this sort of limestone 

 are frequently seen in the road-sections, where weathering has ac- 

 centuated their structure, occupying wash-outs, channels, and eroded 

 hollows in the coral-rocks. 



Prof. Spencer states that he found certain corals — Stylophora sp. 

 and Astroccenia sp. — which were determined for him by Dr. T. W. 

 Yaughan, and are 



' the same corals as the Oligocene species of Antigua . . . near the Cathedral 

 at Bridgetown.' (Op. jam cit. p. 358.) 



There are not any rocks exposed in the vicinity of the Cathedral, 

 but in 1885 a boring was put down about 250 yards to the west of 

 it. This showed that the limestone-rocks are there very thin, not 

 more than 20 feet in depth, and they rest upon a bed (of unknown 

 thickness) of dark sandy clay, with a high proportion of humus and 

 containing mollusca of varieties which are now living in the brackish 

 water of the swamps that occur in places a little above the sea-level 

 north and south of Bridgetown. 



The nearest exposures to the Cathedral are at a distance of about 

 -500 yards in an easterly direction, and are road-cuttings between 

 the grounds of Queen's House and Queen's School, and an old marl- 

 hole or disused quarry to the east of Combermere School, 



The cuttings and the marl-hole are not far apart, in a knoll at the 

 southern end of the low limestone-bank on which Harrison College, 

 Queen's House, Queen's School, and Combermere School stand. 

 These are the exposures near or in which Prof. Spencer claims to 

 have found corals of Oligocene age. The beds are horizontal, consist 

 of very coarse coralline conglomerate, and are indistinguishable 

 from those now in course of formation not far from this place 

 along the western coast of the island. I collected specimens of 

 two corals which are abundant in the exposures, and these were 

 very kindly examined for me by Prof. J. W. Gregory, P.E.S. 

 He reported on them as follows : — 



' Of them there can be no doubt. The first is a fragment of Colpophyllia 

 gyrosa, the second is an Orbicella acropora. The Colpophyllia yyrosa, so far as 

 I know it, is only found fossil in the Pleistocene, and is a common living West- 



