FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 



471 



The predominance of simple fossil corals in San Domingo, and their com- 

 plete absence in Antigua, were pointed out ; and it was remarked that the 

 same kind of distribution occurs at the present day, pedunculated com- 

 pound forms being very common around the northern Antilles, but rare 

 around the north-eastern, although the corals are mostly of different 

 genera to those found in the fossil state. The author concluded with some 

 remarks on the physical conditions of the Miocene period in the West 

 Indies, observing that the Nivaje shales and associated deposits are the 

 remains of an ancient barrier-reef, and giving an analytical table of the 

 affinities of the species, in w 7 hich it was shown that the Pacific and East 

 Indian element greatly preponderated. 



2. "Notes to accompany some Fossils from Japan." By Captain Bul- 

 lock. — There having been no geologist attached to the late surveying- 

 expedition of H.M.S. 'Dove,' the commander of that vessel endeavoured 

 to repair the deficiency, so far as his professional duties would allow, 

 by collecting fossils, and recording their localities. The specimens were 

 presented to the Geological Society. 



3. " On some Miocene Mollusca from Mount Sela, in the Island of 

 Java." By H. M. Jenkins, Esq., F.G-.S. With a Description of a new 

 Coral from the same Locality, and a Note on the Scindian Fossil Corals. 

 By P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.G.S. — A short notice of the scanty litera- 

 ture of Javan geology having been given, the author described briefly the 

 geological and physical features of the Mount Sela district, and made some 

 general observations on, and gave descriptions of, the fossils which were 

 the subject of the paper, and which had been sent to England by M. Corn, 

 de Groot. Of sixteen determinable species, only three are now known to 

 exist, the remainder being new species ; but the fossils were probably more 

 recent than this small percentage of living species would appear to indicate, 

 there having occurred an emigration eastward of at least a part of the 

 Southern- and Middle-European Miocene and Eocene fauna, as was 

 proved by the identity of many species in the European Miocene, which 

 now exist in the eastern seas, and also by certain genera being represented 

 in that formation and the Eocene, and confined in the living state to the 

 Indo-Pacific region. One of the Javan species being closely related to 

 Vicarya Verneuilii from Scinde, the author was induced to investigate the 

 claims of the Nummulitic formation of India to be considered altogether of 

 Eocene date ; and he inferred that there was a probability of some of the 

 beds belonging to a less remote period. This inference was supported by 

 Dr. Duncan in a Note upon the Scindian Fossil Corals, many of which 

 (unnamed by M. Haime) were shown to have Miocene and recent, but not 

 Eocene, affinities. The author next referred to the diminutive character of 

 many of these Javan fossils, and then reviewed the opinions of former 

 writers upon the Tertiary formation'of that island, coming to the conclu- 

 sion that the Mount Sela shells were probably of late Miocene date, and 

 that the plants described by Dr. Goeppert were probably newer than the 

 Eocene. The fossil coral from Mount Sela was shown by Dr. Duncan to 

 be allied to Astrcea quadrangularis, the habitat of which is unknown. 



