295 



Guppy Reprint 



Pvge 4 



Trinidad and been subject, not only to the most terrible fevers, 

 but also the deadly persecution of those who hate science and 

 freedom, and who command all influence in the community, I 

 can do but little. 



As I have said, Professor Gregory's erudition and research 

 are profound, but they have not saved him from falling into the 

 error of mixing up the Miocene with the Eocene and calling the 

 result Oligocene. So far as I am concerned, I have objected to 

 the use of the latter term which has only come into use since my 

 eyes have been opened to the distinctions between the Eocene 

 and Miocene of the West Indies. For the deposits containing 

 Area patricia, Petaloconchns, Solarium, Turbinehis, Conns, & c. , 

 &e., in Haiti, Jamaica, Cumana (Venezuela), Trinidad, &c, I 

 prefer to retain the term Miocene. In his paper of 1895 (Journal 

 of the Geological Society, Vol. LI., page 295) Gregory refers to 

 two Echinoids sent him from Antigua as most typical of the West 

 Indian "Oligocene." Of these Echinanthus antilarum is 

 stated by Cotteau to be an eocene species from St. Barts while 

 Clypeaster concavus (Cotteau) is stated to be from the miocene of 

 Anguilla, having been previous^ recorded by me from that island 

 under the name of C. elipticus. I fear that some mistake has 

 crept in here, for while the St. Barts formation is eocene that of 

 Anguilla is decided to be miocene. I am the more inclined to sus- 

 pect a mistake here because I find that Ediinolampas scmiorbis, 

 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 cites E. semiorbis from Cuba, and nmch 

 confusion has already arisen as regards the classification and 

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

 care in assigning the fossils to their proper beds. (See Vaughan 

 Jennings in the Journal of the Geological Society, 1892, page 

 541.) I shall not go further into these points just now because I 

 have in hand a paper on the Geology of Antigua and other parts 

 of the West Indies in which I shall touch on this question. In 



