Vol. 5.1 .] AND PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF THE WEST INDIES. 



309 



Siephanoccenia dendroidea, Dune, 



p. 258. 

 Antillia bilobata, Dune, p. 260. 

 Dichoccenia tuberosa, Dune, p. 268. 

 Barysmilia intermedia, Dune, p. 269. 

 Astrcea endothecata, Dune, p. 271. 

 cylindrica, Dune, p. 271. 



Astrcea barbadensis, Dune, p. 272. 

 Heliastrcea altissima, Dune, p. 272. 

 Antillastrcea spang if ormis, Dune, 



p. 276. 

 Siderastrcsa grandis, Dune, p. 279. 

 crenulata, var. Antillarum; 



Dune, p. 279. 



3. The genus Antillastrcea is regarded as a synonym of Stepha- 



nocoenia, and Mycedium of Agaricia. Antillia is also aban- 

 doned, as the epitheca is not regarded as a reliable diagnostic 

 character in the Astraeidae simplices. 



4. The genera Hydnophora and Echinopora are added to the West 



Indian fauna. 



Affinities of the Fossil Corals. 



1. Those of the raised reefs of Barbados give no trace of the influence 



of admixture with Pacific types. 



2. The fauna is an offshoot of that of the Miocene of the Mediter- 



ranean basin. 



3. Its nearest living ally is, therefore, that of the Red Sea and 



Indian Ocean. 



4. The migration of this fauna westward across the tropical Atlantic 



supports the theory of the existence of a shallow-water ridge 

 or coast-line across that ocean in Middle Kainozoic times. For 

 the corals could not have crossed the cold abysses of the 

 Atlantic, and, as they are absent from the Miocene deposits of 

 Northern Europe and the United States, it is clear that they 

 did not work their way around the shallow waters of the 

 North Atlantic. As some echinoidea of similar range, which 

 have-, no free-swimming larval stage, must have crossed at the 

 same time, it is not probable that the fauna reached the West 

 Indies by larvae floating across the ocean. 



TJie Theory of the Permanence of the Ocean-Basins. 



1. The evidence of the geology and palaeontology of the West 



Indies is therefore opposed to the theory of the permanence of 

 the ocean-basins. For, on the one hand, it supplies a case of 

 abyssal deposits raised more than 1000 feet above the sea: on 

 the other, the origin of the faunas can only be explained by 

 the subsidence of part of the Mid-Atlantic in Miocene times. 



2. The occurrence of radiolarian oozes in Cuba shows that the 



submergence did not affect only the margin of the West Indian 

 area. The great subsidence was probably part of that which 

 formed the basin of the Mid- Atlantic. 



Note on Additional Mollusca from the Scotland Beds. — 

 I have received this morning (18th Feb.) from Mr. Jukes-Browne 

 a small collection of mollusca from the Scotland Beds. They are 

 too fragmentary for full determination, but so far as the evidence 



