26 
Bulletin 35 
174 
Pa^e 147 
B}- degrees, as the natural sciences advanced, it became 
more and more clear that the true means of classihdng the 
rocks which form the earth’s crust, and which are therefore 
the only one accessible to our observation, was by the study 
of their imbedded organic remains. It is not within the 
limits of this paper, devoted as it is solely to We.st Indian 
geology and especially to that of our own island, to detail or 
even glance at the various steps by which the progress of 
geology was facilitated by the advance of paleontological 
knowledge. I shall therefore pa.ss on at once to the fir.st 
notices of fossils found in the West Indies. Moreau de 
Jonnees* appears to have been one of the first to observe 
such objects. Humboldt, as I have already mentioned, 
had noticed the fossils of Cuba and Venezuela. Duchas- 
saing, a medical practitioner in St. Thomas, collected and 
determined the fossils of Guadeloupe, and with the assist- 
ance of Michelin published the results in the “Bulletin” of 
the Geological Society of France. Other collections were 
made by Nugent and others ; but our first real knowledge 
of the Caribean tertiary fauna is due to Colonel Heneken, 
who was engaged in military operations in Haiti in the 
year 1849. The collection of fos.sils made by him was 
examined and described by Mr. Carrick Moore and the 
results published in the Journal of the Geological Society. 
Fortunately for We.st-Indian geology this .series of remains 
was in very fine pre.servation, and it was therefore eas}' to 
compare them with the beautiful fo.ssils of Bordeaux, Dax, 
and Vienna, their European analogues. The fossil mollu-ska 
of the miocene beds of Haiti have consequently .served as a 
.standard for ascertaining the relative age of the tertiaries 
of the West-Indies. 
* Histoire Physique des .Antilles frangaises. 
