306 DR. J. W. GBEGOEY ON TEE PALEONTOLOGY [Aug. l895 r 



have received their inhabitants in the same manner as true oceanic 

 islets. 



Affinities of the Fossil Coral Fauna. — One final argument against 

 the view of the Pleistocene connexion between the Caribbean Sea 

 and the Pacific is afforded by the evidence of the fossil corals of 

 Barbados. When we remember that the High-level Reefs there 

 contain two genera now extinct in the "West Indies, and that the 

 stratigraphical evidence indicates that the reefs have been gradually 

 formed during a long, slow elevation, it is difficult to doubt that 

 the oldest reefs must date back at least to early Pleistocene times. 

 Nevertheless the coral fauna of the High-level Eeefs does not 

 present the slightest trace of any intermixture ■with Pacific types. 

 In fact the forms found fossil in, but not known to be still living 

 around, Barbados increase the differences between the Caribbean 

 and Panamaic faunas. They strengthen the resemblance of the 

 former to that of the Bed Sea and Indian Ocean, and to the fossils 

 of the Mediterranean basin. One cannot compare the West Indian 

 corals with those of such deposits as the Miocene of the hills around 

 Turin, or with those which are still living in the Bed Sea, without 

 recognizing that they are part of the same fauna. 



The remarkable resemblances between the present fauna of the 

 West Indian seas and that of the Miocene deposits of the Mediter- 

 ranean basin have frequently been pointed out. Michelotti i iden- 

 tified many of the fossils from the hills of Turin with recent West- 

 Indian species. Duncan 2 determined the presence of the same 

 species of corals in the rocks of Antigua and Malta. Pourtales 3 

 suggested that the Tertiary deep-sea fauna of Europe migrated 

 westward and supplanted that of the West Indies. Cleve 4 and 

 Guppy, 5 on the evidence of the mollusca, pointed out that the 

 affinities of the West Indian Miocene faunas are with those of 

 Europe instead of North America, and therefore conclude that they 

 reached that region by migration across the Atlantic. The echi- 

 noidea yield similar and more conclusive evidence. As I have 

 previously pointed out, 6 the intimate affinity between those of the 



1 J. Michelotti, ' Specimen Zoophytologias diluvianse,' Turin, 1838. Though 

 most of the living West Indian genera of corals are represented by equivalent 

 species in the North Italian Miocenes, I am not persuaded of the specific identity 

 of the two series. Michelotti's records are therefore not included in the synonymy. 



2 P. M. Duncan, Geol. Mag. 1864, pp. 97-102. 



3 L. F. de Pourtales, ' Zoological Eesults of theHassler Expedition, Crinoids 

 and Corals,' 111. Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard, no. viii. (1874) p. 49. 



4 P. T. Cleve, ' On the Geology of the North-Eastern West India Islands,' 

 Handl. k. Svensk. Vet.-Akad. vol. ix. no. 12 (1871) p. 48. 



5 R. J. L. Guppy, 'On the Tertiary Mollusca of Jamaica,' Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. vol. xxii. (1866) p. 285 ; ' On the "Relations of the Tertiary Formations 

 of the West Indies,' ibid. pp. 584-590 ; 'Notes on West Indian Geology, with 

 Remarks on the Existence of an Atlantis in the Early Tertiary Period, and De- 

 scriptions of some New Fossils from the Caribbean Miocene,' Geol. Mag. 1867, 

 pp. 496-501 ; ' On some New Tertiary Fossils from Jamaica,' Proc. Sci. Assoc. 

 Trinidad, pt. x. vol. ii. (1873) p. 72. 



s J. W. Gregory, ' The Relations of the American and European Echinoid 

 Faunas,' Pull. Geol. Soc. Amer. vol. iii. (1891) pp. 101-108. 



