On the Fossil Corals of the West Indian Islands.—Part I

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Abstract
It has been noticed that the Testacea sent from Antigua with the Corals have been stated to belong to the present age. This is correct; but there are a few Shells and casts of Shells of an older date. A Helix , common as a fossil, is not now, according to Dr. Nugent, an inhabitant of the island; and the extinct Melaniæ are found in great abundance with silicified Woods. Both in Jamaica and in San Domingo there are late Tertiary Shells and Corals, but it is impossible to bring these facts in antagonism with those which give a more remote age to the strata whence the specimens described were obtained. So with regard to Antigua, Barbuda, and Barbadoes, it is not correct to give the whole Islands a Pliocene or Postpliocene age because recent and subfossil Shells are found in them. As yet, the Testacea have not assisted in determining the geologic age of the three coral-formations of Antigua; but Mr. C. Moore has given a Miocene age to the Mollusca from the San-Domingan shales, whence the Corals here described were derived. The Alabama Eocene Shells and Corals are distinct from those of the raised Coral-beds of the West Indian Islands; and it is worthy of remembrance that, although there are genera and species of Corals in Antigua, San Domingo, and Jamaica belonging to the great European Miocene Coralage, still there are a few European Miocene genera of Corals which are not as yet known to belong to the West Indian Miocene.

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