ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 265 



scendants gathered round it, makes here and there 

 shaded arbors and covered ways of very great extent. 

 Its fruit is small and uncomely and is not enjoyed by 

 either man or beast, nor is its wood of any especial 

 use. 



The rock of which the hills of this island and the rest 

 of the Bahamas consists (the same probably as that of 

 other West Indian islands *) is a limestone formed 

 from triturated shells and other hard products of the 

 sea. Such an origin is visible and unmistakable ; in the 

 stones themselves fragments of many kinds of shells 

 are plainly enough to be seen; indeed, one even finds 

 in places high above the sea and at a distance from it, 

 whole pieces of what are certainly madrepores, mille- 

 pores, corals, or other lithophytes which are closely 

 incorporated in the rocky soil, associated with it in 

 such a way that there can be no doubt as to the origin. 

 From these stones lime is burned, but on account of 

 the quartzose sand particles here and there mxied in, 

 this is not always of the same good quality. These 

 stones are excellently suited for building; fresh from 

 the quarry they are so soft that with little difficulty any 

 form can be given them, and afterwards they take on 

 a considerable degree of hardness. They are besides 



* The author of the Voyage d'un Suisse dans different. 

 Colon, de I'Amerique &c., says of Curasao : Le sol y est tres 

 inegal, maigre, sterile; a peine y trouve-t-on sept a huit pouces 

 de terre. Au dessous est une espece de roc calcaire, forme 

 par des debris de corps marins petrifies, au milieu desquels 

 j'ai vu plusieurs madrepores extremement sains. + And Isert 

 (Reise nach Guinea und den Caribischen Inseln) mentions 

 the coast-hills of St. Christopher as made up of petrified 

 madrepores. 

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