^98 DR. J. W. GREGORY. ON THE PALEONTOLOGY [Aug. 1895, 



affinities of the species, which he assigned to the Lower Miocene. 

 Guppy introduced, however, a new element of uncertainty, hy 

 separating the fossiliferous horizon from the rest of the Scotland 

 Beds. This he did apparently only on the strength of a remark of 

 Sir R. Schomburgk's, 1 to which he attributes greater importance 

 than it seems to deserve. It is therefore advisable at present to 

 correlate the whole of the beds in Barbados below the Oceanic 

 Series with the San Fernando or Naparima Marls of Trinidad. 

 Guppy has recently referred these (and the lower part, at least, of 

 the Scotland Beds, goes with them) to the Eocene. 2 They are, how- 

 ever, now generally assigned to the Oligocene, as, for example, by 

 Heilprin. 3 An additional argument in support of this view is now 

 afforded by the record in an earlier part of this paper of the occur- 

 rence of two of the most typical of the "West Indian Oligocene 

 echinoids in Antigua. This tends to show that the various out- 

 crops of shallow-water marine sediments in corresponding positions 

 in different islands of the Lesser Antilles archipelago are all 

 fragments of widespread Oligocene deposits. Unfortunately, the 

 Antiguan fossil mollusca have not yet been worked out, so that we 

 have only the evidence of the corals and the foraminifera to rely 

 upon in the correlation of the Antiguan series. The reference of 

 this to the Oligocene is, however, quite in accordance with the view 

 advocated by Profs. Duncan 4 and Bupert Jones 5 in 1864 ; on the 

 evidence respectively of these two groups of fossils they correlated 

 the Antigua beds with the Lower Limestone of Malta, which is now 

 known to be Tongrian or Lower Oligocene. 6 



As the Oceanic Series overlies the Scotland Beds it is intermediate 

 in age between the Lower Oligocene and that of the High-level 

 Ooral B,eefs. For determining its position within narrower limits 

 we have to turn to indirect evidence. 



The Age of the Oceanic Series. — The line of enquiry that at first 

 sight promises most help is the correlation of the Oceanic Series 

 with similar deep-sea deposits in otber West Indian islands. This, 

 however, is beset by two difficulties : the exact age of the other 

 thalassic beds is equally uncertain, while one cannot be sure that 

 they were all formed simultaneously. As is the case with the deep- 



1 ' Notes on West Indian Geology, with remarks on . . . Atlantis . . . and de- 

 scriptions of new fossils.' . . . Geol. Mag. 1867 : pp. 497, 500, fig. 5, 499. 



2 'The Tertiary Microzoic Formations of Trinidad,' Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc. vol. xlviii. (1892) pp. 520, 521, 535, 538. 



3 A. Heilprin, 'Explorations on the West Coast of Florida and in the 

 Okeechobee Wilderness,' Philadelphia, 1887, pp. 127, 58-59. 



* P. M. Duncan, 'On the Correlation of the Miocene Beds of the West 

 Indian Islands ; and on the Synchronism of the Chert Formation of Antigua 

 with the Lowest Limestone of Malta,' Geol. Mag. 1864, pp. 97-102. 



6 T. E. Jones, ' The Relationship of certain West Indian and Maltese Strata 

 as shown by some Orbitoides and other Foraminifera,' Geol. Mag. 1864, 

 pp. 102-106. 



8 J. W. Gregory, ' The Maltese Fossil Echinoidea and their Evidence on the 

 Correlation of the Maltese Rocks,' Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. vol. xxxvi. (1891) 

 pt. iii. pp. 634, 635. 



