102 



OlSr THE TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 



known S23ecies of Jamaica, as stated above, and a few of the later-described species 

 of Trinidad, there would be nothing to.add to the table of Btheridge and Gruppy. 

 The most striking feature of the above table is the large number of species it con- 

 tains which have survived from the Miocene seas, only on the west coast of the 

 Continent. Another feature which it does not show is that already noted by 

 Sowerby, of the marked Oriental type of many of the extinct species. The resem- 

 blance between many of them, like Metula cancellata, Onustus iinperforatus, Lyria 

 pulchella, and others, to their congeners in the Eastern seas is at least very 

 suggestive. - ■ : ' ■ ■ • 



So much has been said about the coal of Santo Domingo that it is necessary to 

 refer to it more explicitly than circumstances would otherwise warrant. Throughout 

 the country, wherever the upper parts of Miocene are found, there are small l^eds of 

 an exceedingly impure lignite. It occurs in the brown shales at a number of points 

 along the Cibao Valley, at Garabitos near San Cristobal, and on the peninsula of 

 vSamana and in the Mao gravel near Savaneta. In no case do the seams exceed 

 three or four inches, and in no case is the material more than an imperfect lignite, 

 earthy and crumbling readily on exposure to the air. In a country like Santo 

 Domingo, where the demand for fuel is so limited and the supply so extensive, a 

 coal must be of extraordinarily good quality to warrant mining. In that case it 

 might be made available for sea-going vessels or for export. It could never be 

 much in request for home consumption, and unless sufficiently good for export it is 

 necessarily valueless. , . 



