OF SANTO DOMHSTGO. Ill 



group in question. A strong argument against this opinion is that, although but one 

 of the inchided corals is common to this and the underlying chert beds, " in Antigua 

 there is not one West Indian recent species."* Dr. Duncan considers the entire 

 fossiliferous deposit of Antigua, Miocene.f By a series of careful cross-questioning 

 of non-scientific persons who are familiar with Porto Rico, and from some few 

 observations which I have been enabled to make, I have reason to believe that a large 

 part of that island is Post Pliocene, and I have observed extensive bluffs on the east 

 end of the Island of Cuba, especially on the south coast identical in appearance with 

 the bluffs about Santo Domingo City. A large part of the Peninsula of Florida is 

 known to be of very recent origin, and the meagre accounts we possess of Yucatan 

 with its level plains of limestone rock seem to point to a similarity with parts of 

 Jamaica and Santo Domingo. 



Parts of the south coast of Santo Domingo east of the Jaina, and more especially 

 the extreme southeast corner, exhibit proofs of irregularity in the process of upheaval 

 in a series of well-marked terraces. At Santo Domingo City the terraces acquire a 

 total height of about one hundred and fifty feet, one traversing the suburbs in the 

 village of San Carlos, the other lying just back of the town. Looking eastward 

 from the city one terrace can be distinctly seen running along the coast. This 

 extends uninterruptedly to the Quiabon River, beyond which are three terraces, one 

 behind the other on the broad little peninsula which runs down towards Saona Island. 

 A similar terracing of the surface is noted by Schomburgk in Barbados,J which 

 doubtless took place at the same time ; and the geologists of Trinidad§ note com- 

 paratively^ recent raised beaches and other proofs that the elevating action is still 

 going on. A geologist cannot sail among the little islands of the Bahaman group, 

 without being forcibly struck by the idea that these islets are the remains of much 

 larger bodies of land, which once probably covered a large part of the " banks," and 

 that they have been separated and wasted away by the lateral encroachments of the 

 waves. There is no evident reason for the theory that has been advanced, that they 

 are the remaining hill-tops of a sinking land. Their horizontal stratification, their 

 flat surfaces, their precipitous coast bluffs and the extreme shallowness of the water 

 between many of them all point to a broad, gentle upheaval and wave-action as the 

 principal agencies which have been at work among them. 



* Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, loc cit., p. 454. f Same paragraph. 



:(; Hist, of Barbadoes, p. 554, el seq. ^ Report, p. 06. 



