Vol. 67.] OF ANTIGUA AND OTHER WEST INDIAN ISLANDS. 695 



IV. The Paeian Subcontinent. 



To the north of the South American continent lies a sea having 

 a depth which does not exceed 600 feet. This area, bounded 

 on the north by a line approximately parallel with the coast of 

 Venezuela, extends as far east as long. 60° W. It is a sea full 

 of rocks, shoals, and islands including Tobago, and is partly in- 

 dicated in Dr. Spencer's map. 1 It is probable that during the 

 Miocene Period this area was dryland, and this land now drowned, 

 together with the northern part of Venezuela as far south as the 

 Llanos of the Orinoco, I propose to call the Parian Sub- 

 continent. It is remarkable that, from the point where the 

 line of the great Antillean Dislocation enters upon this area, no 

 evidences of vulcanicity appear in the neighbourhood of it. The 

 line of dislocation itself is well shown by the soundings which are 

 deeper along its course than elsewhere. 2 Dr. Spencer has indicated 

 it as one of his drowned valleys, and makes it run towards the 

 north ; but I have shown 3 that the valleys parallel to and in 

 the neighbourhood of* this all run southwards. In the Gulf of 

 Paria the dislocation reached a maximum, for that Gulf is due to 

 it. Here it divided and turned westwards, passing through the 

 Gulf of Cariaco, which is also due to it. Is it possible that 

 the reason why no volcanic phenomena arose along this part of 

 the dislocation was because this part was land, and accordingly 

 sea-water was not admitted in quantity to the inner crust of the 

 earth? For this northern portion of Venezuela and the adjacent 

 sea, including Tobago and the northern part of Trinidad, was 

 land all through the Tertiary Era, up to the time of the develop- 

 ment of the great Antillean Dislocation ; while all the region south 

 and west was sea, as I have on several occasions shown, and 

 especially in my paper on the ' Geological Connexions of the 

 Caribean Pegion.' I am glad here to use P. Martin Duncan's 

 words, to show that he too had been led to the same conclusion, 

 which is borne out by Karsten's observations on the geology of 

 South America : — 



' Formerly, when the great plains through which the Orinoco passes were a 

 Miocene sea-bottom, there may have been an open sea, as large as the Caribbean, 

 to the west and south, and the coral-reefs would have been supported by the 

 outliers of the mica-slate ranges of Colombia.' (Q. J. G. S. vol. xxiv, 18(58, 

 p. 15.) 



And, since I wrote the above-mentioned paper (Trans. Canad. 

 Inst. vol. viii, 1908-1900), I have found the cogency of the reason- 

 ing in favour of a communication by sea between the Pacific 

 Ocean and the Caribean region through the Orinoco and Amazon 

 valleys in no way diminished. 



i Q. J. G. S. vol. lviii (1902) pi. x. 



2 See Geol. Mag. dec. iv, vol. vii (1900) p. 324. 



3 See 'Growth of Trinidad,' Trans. Canad. Tnst. vol. viii (1904-190-") p. 41. 

 For a further proof, see Proc. Victoria Inst. Trinidad, 1903, p. 529 (p. 5J2 of 

 original paper). 



