g6 THE BUILDING OF AN ISLAND. 



histor}'. It is now generally admitted as probable, that the earth has cooled 

 down from a molten state and that the crust has been pushed up in undula- 

 tions here and there as the result of the contraction of the elobe durine its 

 cooling, a contraction which, it is maintained, is still in progress. If this view 

 is accepted, it seems necessary to admit that the earlier processes may have 

 been very different, at all events in degree, from anything we now see. 



On the other hand, it is quite certain that the greater part of the geological 

 phenomena of the past may, as in the cases just quoted, be illustrated by the 

 changes which we see to be taking place in our own dav. 



Age of the West Indian Volcanic Chain. 



We may now return to the question which was left over from the last 

 chapter, namely, the relation as to age between the two great axes of the West 

 Indies. 



For clearing up this question we must again look to the geologists. Prof. 

 Cleve writes of a limestone deposit in St. Kitts as follows: 



"At the foot of Mount Misery there is in Brimstone Hill a white lime- 

 stone rock of considerable size, surrounded in all directions by loose volcanic 

 rocks. I have not seen in it any trace of stratification. The rock has the 

 appearance of chalk and contains many fossil shells and corals, the greater 

 number in the form of casts. I have found about 43 different mollusca, all 

 of species still living in the Caribbean Sea, except a single specimen of a 

 Modiolaria closely related to a northern still living species. Among the fossil 

 shells one of the most common is Tcllina Grjineri Phil., also occurring in 

 the miocene strata of Cuba and Porto Rico, and still living in the Caribbean 

 Sea, but very rare. The greater number of still living species indicates the 

 recent time at which the deposit was formed, and the formation may probably 

 be determined as the newest pliocene or post-pliocene." 



In the volcanic island of Basseteree, Guadaloupe, Professor Cleve says, 

 some fossiliferous deposits have been found by Mr. Payen. " One of these 

 deposits occurs at the height of 40 meters, about 50 meters from the shore, and 

 the other, which rests upon horizontal beds of volcanic rocks, reaches the 

 height of 100 meters and is 200 meters from the sea. They seem to belong 

 to the same geological time as Brimstone Hill in St. Kitts." 



The same geologist further writes of St. Eustatius : ' According to Maclure 

 there is on the southeast slope of the cone a lime deposit of corals and shells, 

 'similar to those found in the sea." He (Maclure) gives the following descrip- 

 tion: 'The whole of this marine deposition dips to the southwest at an angle 

 of upwards of 45 degrees from the horizon, resting upon a bed of cinders, full 

 of pumice and other volcanic rocks, and is immediatelv covered by a bed of 

 madrepore, sand and cinders mixed together, with blocks of volcanic rocks so 

 disseminated that there can be no doubt of the volcanic origin of the sub- 

 stance above and below the madrepore rock.' " 



