Vol. 67.] OF ANTIGUA AND OTHER WE8T INDIAN ISLANDS. 685 



the other, Chfpeaster concavus Cot., is stated to be from the Miocene 

 of Anguilla, having been previously recorded by me from that island 

 under the name of CI. ellijjticus. Some mistake must have crept in 

 here, for at any rate the St. Barts formation is definitely assigned 

 to the Eocene, while that of Anguilla is considered to be Miocene. 

 I am the more inclined to suspect a mistake as to the distribution 

 of the fossils, because I find that Echinolampas semiorbis, which 

 I described from the Miocene of Anguilla, has been assigned by 

 Cotteau to the Eocene of St. Barts. The error is a serious one, 

 because Cotteau also cites E. semiorbis from Cuba, and much 

 confusion has already arisen in regard to the classification and 

 arrangement of West-Indian strata, owing to the want of due care 

 in stating the exact localities of fossils. I might note here that 

 Brissus exicjuus Cotteau, a fossil originally described from Anguilla, 

 has lately been obtained from Miocene beds in Trinidad associated 

 with the characteristic fossils of that formation. 



R. T. Hill 1 discusses the question of the occurrence in the 

 Antilles of Eocene deposits, and remarks that 



' all geologic record of the lands whence the Antillean [Eocene] deposits came 

 are destroyed.' 



He accepts the Eocene age of the St. Barts beds, but puts the 

 Anguilla beds with them, i^ow the latter contain characteristic 

 Miocene mollusca, while the echinodermatan fauna is different from 

 that of the Eocene. He alludes to the Orbitoides and Nummulince 

 of Antigua as probably Eocene, and decides that certain beds in 

 Haiti are also of that age ; and he quotes Tippenhauer in support 

 of this view. He makes no doubt of the Eocene age of certain 

 beds in Cuba. 



Although "W. M. Gabb refers to the occurrence of Orbitoides 2 

 as having helped him to discriminate between the beds which 

 he assigned to the Miocene and to the Pliocene respectively, 

 yet in the numerous cases where he names the characteristic 

 Miocene mollusca he does not mention Orbitoides, and where ho 

 does mention it he refrains from asserting the coexistence of 

 Miocene mollusca with it. It is unfortunate in this connexion 

 that the mollusca of the Eocene deposits are so seldom found in a 

 condition admitting of specific determination or description. The 

 name of Natica pliasianelloides is given from several localities as 

 that of an Eocene and Miocene fossil ; but the imperfect state of 

 the specimens does not preclude the possibility that some may belong 

 to another species. A fossil apparently the same, from the Tejon 

 (Eocene) Beds of California, has been figured under the name of 

 Amauropsis alveata Conr. in U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull. 396 (1909) 

 pi. iv, fig. 21. 



While claiming for the calcareous formation of Antigua (called 



i 'Geology & Physical Geography of Jamaica' Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 

 Harvard, vol. xxxiv (1899) p. 177. 



3 ' Geology of Santo Domingo' Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vol. xv (1873) pp. 96, 



im, 174. 



3 \ 2 





