33i Guppy Reprint 183 



Page 3 



as pointed out by Spencer (see his paper of 1901, Journ. Geol. 

 Soc. Vol. lvii. p. 542, and 1912, ibidem. Vol. lviii. pp. 348, 352, 

 and also my paper on Dominica) . These deposits are of Pliocene 

 or late Tertiary date and do not necessarily indicate subsidence, 

 as they may have been merely pauses in the last stages of the el- 

 evation of the Antillean islands, though of course it is not impos- 

 sible that minor movements of elevation and depression may 

 have operated all along the chain of the Antilles and in other 

 parts of the West Indies. All these later marine deposits are 

 more or less covered by volcanic matter, but being generally lit- 

 oral they are exposed by erosion of the sea or of streams. 



I do not think that the evidence we have is sufficient to sus- 

 tain the conclusions of Spencer as stated by him at page 353 of 

 the Journal of the Geological Society 1902. Whether the islands 

 were ever all united into one continental mass as imagined by 

 Spencer is, I think, very problematical, and I doubt if there is 

 any evidence for it. 



The occurrence of a tooth said to be that of an elephant in 

 Guadelupe is insufficient to build an}^ hypothesis upon. 



The facts which form the subject of this note have been 

 stated generally in 1113- paper on Antigua ; but as Dr. Watts 

 seems to have taken a different view of them I thought it desir- 

 able to restate them for the sake of possibly greater clearness. 



Whether or not there exist in Antigua or in others of the 

 Antilles any of the ancient rocks developed in the Virgin Islands 

 is more than I can say. It is possible that the Seaforth Lime- 

 stone, so-called by Spencer, is such a rock, but there is no cer- 

 tain evidence of it, and I have seen nothing of the formation re- 

 ferred to by Dr. Watts as extending through the West Indies 

 from the Virgin Islands southward. 



Page 4 



Since I wrote my paper on Antigua etc. I have received 

 from Mr. Forrest more definite information as to the locality in 

 which the fossil fish described by Professor Hussakof was discov- 



