CHAPTER XXIX 



THE CARIBBEE ISLANDS 



Classification into volcanic and calcareous subgroups. The Anguillan 

 subgroup. Sombrero. Anguilla. St. Barts. St. Martin. Bar- 

 buda. Antigua. 



STRETCHING like the piers of a bridge across the 

 entrance to the Caribbean Sea, from the Anegada 

 Passage to Trinidad, is a chain of beautiful lands which 

 may be called the Caribbee Islands. They rise from a 

 narrow submarine bank, like the Antilles, but have a north- 

 and-south trend, directly at right angles to that of the 

 latter, and separated therefrom by the deep Anegada Pas- 

 sage, each chain probably representing the survival of 

 what were great islands in former geologic times. 



Primarily the Caribbees are composed of a long chain of 

 old volcanic islands, upon the summits of some of which 

 the volcanic fires are still somnolent, bordered on the 

 windward or Atlantic side of the north end of the quad- 

 rant by great banks of white calcareous rocks which have 

 been elevated from the sea as a kind of shelf or appendage 

 to the main volcanic chain. The main chain of islands 

 will be called the Caribbees, and the calcareous outliers the 

 Anguillan subgroup. 



These calcareous islands occur in parallel alinement along 

 the northeast side of the main Caribbean chain, extending 

 from Sombrero to Maria Galante inclusive. They consist 

 of the islands of Sombrero, Anguilla, St. Bartholomew, 



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