THE l;i II.DINC OK AX ISLAND. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Limestone and Maki. Formation in the Centkai, Slope. 



The Central Slope of the island is occupied by the hmestone and marl 

 formation, which also stretches along the southwestern shore to the west end 

 of the island. We shall see later that it is the youn<i;er of the two great form- 

 ations which make up the island, namely, the nuxj'l and the ' hhic-bcachr and 

 that it rests upon the latter. The soil over the marl formation sometimes, and 

 especiallv on the hillslopes, has a whitish appearance, and very often contains 

 numerous stones broken out of the formation in a way to lie studied later. 



The formation mav l)e examined wherever it has been l)roken into, eitlier 

 naturalh' or artificiallv, as, for instance, artificiallv in road-cuttings and quarries, 

 and naturally in sea-cliffs, watercourses and the like. We begin our study with 

 a road-cutting at .Xnna's Ilope estate, which is jiarticularlv suitable because it 

 is easily accessible from Christiansted. Here the road is cut in the hillside, 

 which gives us an opportunity to learn of what stuff the hill is built up. If the 

 study is quite new to us, the first thing which will strike us will probably be that 

 the rocks shewn at the roadside are arranged in layers, and the (|uesti(in will 

 arise, how is that to be accounted for? Whatever their origin there can be no 

 mistake about the fact of the existence of these layers, some of which form at 

 this spot, as shewn in the accompanying photograph, natural steps in a path cut 

 into the hillside and le;iding u]) to the estate residence. A furt her examination of 

 the layers shows that some are softer than others, so that the weather acting on 

 them wears them back and leaves the harder ones prominent. To proceed further, 

 we ought to have a jiocket lens'-' with us, and if we then break off a small piece 



* A useful lens can be had from any optician at a cost of from two to five shillings ; but if the reader 

 is willing to spend something more on this most valuable little instrument, he is recommended to procure 

 one of the platyscopic lenses made by Mr. John Browning of 7S Strand, London, and costing fifteen shillings. 

 These lenses are made in three powers, and the cut shows the three forms, the most useful of which is the 

 one of lowest power (the largest lens shewn in the cut), which multiplies the image of the object 

 10 diameters. 



Fig. 7. 



The present writer has used one of these lenses for many years and has found it a source of great en- 

 joyment in the examination of the rocks and other natural objects in the island. 



