310 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



[aland, OldJerusalem, Round Rock, Ginger, Coopers, Salt, 



Peters, Norman Islands, etc. 



They are all mountainous, projecting above the water 

 like tips of submerged peaks, which they really are. They 

 are very rugged, and are beautiful when viewed from the 

 sea. The upper outline of hills of the larger islands, with 

 its multitudinous little coves and dry gullies, reminded 

 Kingsley of the Auvergne Mountains. "Their water-line 

 has been exposed to the gnawing of the sea at the present 

 level, and everywhere the cliffs are freshly broken, toppling 

 down in dust and boulders, and leaving detached stacks 

 and skerries. Most beautiful meanwhile are the winding 

 channels of blue water, like landlocked lakes, which part 

 the Virgins from each other; and beautiful the white 

 triangular sails of the canoe-rigged craft which beat up 

 and down them through strong currents and cockling seas. 

 The clear air, the still soft outline, the rich yet delicate 

 coloring, stir up a sense of purity and freshness, and peace 

 and cheerfulness, such as is stirred up by certain views of 

 the Mediterranean and its shores." 



The total area of all the islands hardly aggregates two 

 hundred square miles, the largest of them, St. Thomas, 

 possessing only thirty-seven square miles. The current 

 impression that these islands, as a whole, are either of vol- 

 canic or coral-reef origin, is a mistake. Traces of marine 

 volcanism are less apparent than in New England, while 

 the coral rocks are only an attenuated fringe added in 

 recent geologic time. They are all of the same general 

 geologic composition as the Great Antilles, consisting of a 

 foundation of rocks of suspected Paleozoic origin, covered 

 by great masses of Cretaceous and Tertiary conglomerate 

 and clay, derived from the now vanished geologic Atlantis, 

 which in turn are veneered by the mantle of oceanic chalky- 

 white limestones, and these fringed by a border of coral- 

 reef rock. Penetrating the older rocks are dikes of ancient 

 volcanic material. 



The smaller islets are marked by stretches of coral and 



