76 Geological Society. 



6. " On Fossil Corals from the Eocene Formation of the West 

 Indies." By Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.K.S., V.P.G.S. 



The author had considered his labours amongst the fossil corals of 

 the West-Indian Islands finished ; but lately a very fine collection has 

 been sent to him from the University of Upsala, and Mr. P. T. Cleve 

 of Stockholm. The specimens were collected from limestone and coral 

 conglomerates, which are covered by and rest upon volcanic debris 

 and ejectamenta in the Island of St. Bartholomew. The species re- 

 presented there are numerous, and may be divided into : — Group 1, 

 species not hitherto known ; 2, species with a Cretaceous facies ; 

 3, species characteristic of the horizons of the Upper Eocene and 

 Oligocene deposits of Europe ; 4, species found also in the Nummu- 

 litic deposits of Europe and Sinde; 5, species belonging to the 

 recent coral fauna ; 6, species belonging to genera which belong to 

 the Jurassic fauna, and to the Caribbean. 



The determination of the forms of the associated Mollusca and 

 Echinodermata permit the following deposits being placed on a 

 general geological horizon — the limestone and conglomerate of St. 

 Bartholomew, the dark shales beneath the Miocene of Jamaica, 

 the beds of San Fernando, Trinidad. These were probably contem- 

 poraneous with the Java deposits, the Eocene of the Hala chain, 

 the great reefs of the Castel Gomberto district, the reefs of Ober- 

 berg in Steiermark, and the Oligocene of Western Europe. 



The author has already described reef corals from the Lower Cre- 

 taceous (Upper Greensand) of Jamaica ; and the size of the speci- 

 mens proves that the reef was exposed to the surf of an open sea. 

 To these reefs succeeded on the same area others in the Eocene 

 time, in the Miocene and Pliocene ; and there are modern reefs in 

 the neighbourhood. 



The affinities and identities of the fossil forms with those of con- 

 temporaneous reefs in Asia and Europe, and the limitation of the 

 species of the existing Caribbean coral fauna, point out the correct- 

 ness of the views put forth by S. P. Woodward, Carrick Moore, and 

 the author, concerning the upheaval of the Isthmus of Panama after 

 the termination of the Miocene period. 



7. " Note on the Lignite-deposit of Lal-Lal, Victoria, Australia." 

 By E. Etheridge, Esq., Jun., F.G.S. 



The author described this deposit, which is worked at the village 

 of Lal-Lal, south of Mount Bunniyong. A boring towards the centre 

 of the deposit showed about 73 feet of sand, clay, and gravel, 3 feet 

 of fireclay, and 1 15 feet of lignite. The lignite is an earthy bitu- 

 minous coal, composed of branches, roots, &c. of coniferous trees. 

 In the mass there are a few thin seams of jet and clay-beds, accom- 

 panied by two kinds of resin. The lignite is very poor in carbon. 

 It is almost entirely composed of remains of coniferous plants not 

 now existing in Victoria ; and the author considered that it is nearly 

 of the same age as the Lignite deposit of Morrison's Diggings, which 

 has been regarded as Miocene. 



