110 



ox THE TOrOftPtAPHY AXD GEOLOGY 



Between the 2n igna and i^izao where the Azna gravel shades into the calcareous 

 beds, tl>ere is a small deposit of a recent Oyster, and near Macoris at the mouth of 

 the river of the same name, Mr. Bonaczy collected a series of thirty-three species of 

 moUiisca, besides corals and echinoderms. A list of these fossils is appended. 



I use LyelFs names for the divisions of the Tertiary as has been already very 

 aptly said by Mr. Gup})y, not as implying that the various formations are exactly 

 synchronous with the Miocene, Pliocene, or Post Pliocene of Europe, or even of the 

 United States, but that they bear a relation among themselves similar to that borne 

 by those divisions in Europe and ]!^orth America, and that they approximate more or 

 less neaily to those divisions in point of time. - . 



The coast formation of Santo Domingo is extensively represented in most if not 

 all of the other West Indian Islands. In Jamaica as the " white limestone " it 

 " covers more than three-fourths of the island, and may be computed at 2,000 feet in 

 thickness."* 



It was at first considered by Mi'. Sawkins as Miocene, but in the section at the 

 end of the book it is put down as Post Pliocene.f It makes all of the Bahamas as 

 well as the Bermudas. It exists in Ti'inidad as the upper part of the ISTewer Parian 

 series," covering (if we include under this title only the "Moruga series") about a 

 fourth of the island. But the colonial geologists do not seem to be very certain 

 whether " the different series of the N^ewer Parian," " were deposited each during a 

 special epoch " or whether two or more members were not being " deposited in distinct 

 localities at the same period."^ In the latter case a much larger area is occupied by 

 the formation. Schomburgk devotes a dozen pages to a description of this formation 

 in Barbadoes,§ whence from amidst some remarkable theories, we can gather that 

 about six-sevenths of the area of that island is covered by it. We have no geological 

 accounts of the other islands except Antigua, and my own experience is not very 

 extensive. I have seen no recent formation on St. Thomas, although I only know 

 the immediate vicinity of the port. It is probable that the rock " containing Nerineas, 

 &c." (Cretaceous?) at or near the east end is the most modern deposit. Doubtless 

 between St. Thomas and Trinidad there is much coral rock, the more especially since 

 w^e know the great part that the late Tertiaries play in the latter island and in 

 Barbadoes. Dr. ISTugentH published an account of Antigua which is quoted by Dr. 

 Duncan. ^1 From the description given of the " marl " and from Dr. Duncan's tables 

 of the fossils of the different beds,** it seems probable that this marl belongs to the 



* Jamaica Report, p. 807. | Loe cit., pp. 23 and 341. I Trinidad Report, p. 59. 



§ Hist, of Barbadoes, p. 534, et seq. \\ Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond., 1st Ser., Vol. 5, p. 459. 



1 Qnart. Jour. Geol. Boc, Vol. XIX., p. 408, et seq. ** Loe cit., pp. 410 and 411. 



