THE CARIBBEE ISLANDS 319 



St. Martin, Barbuda, Antigua (in part), the Grande-Terre 

 of Guadeloupe, and Maria Galante. [nasmueli as these 

 are of secondary importance to the main chain, they will 

 be but briefly discussed. 



Sombrero, the most northern of the islands, is so named 

 because at a distance it looks like a grayish hat floating on 

 the sea. It is a small and barren mass of calcareous rock, 

 old beach debris elevated into land, and was considered 

 of no value until Americans developed extensive phosphate 

 deposits upon it, which are now nearly exhausted. Near 

 by is a cluster of rocks called the Dogs, from their resem- 

 blance to a pack of hounds in full chase over the waves. 



Anguilla is fourteen miles long and three miles broad. 

 It is a long, low, treeless, and unfruitful area. Of its 

 population of twenty-five hundred less than one hundred 

 are white. Several small outlying islands are associated 

 with Anguilla in forming a British colony, which is under 

 the general government of St. Kitts. Pasturage is the 

 principal resource. The people raise small ponies that 

 graze on the salt-grass along the beach. Some phosphate 

 of lime, salt, a little tobacco, corn, and cattle are produced. 



St. Bartholomew, familiarly called St. Barts, is on the 

 southern extremity of a bank from which rise also Anguilla 

 and St. Martin. It is a narrow island, only eight square 

 miles in area, the whole surface of which is mountainous, 

 culminating in a limestone hill one thousand feet high. 

 The place has no fresh water, although many brackish 

 lagoons occur along the coast. The geological formations 

 <>i' the island, except the fringe of recent rocks, are mostly 

 old Tertiary limestones. The surface is a very -tony soil 

 composed of rock fragments and boulders. The mountain 

 masses contain older igneous rocks a kind of syenitic 

 porphyry; conglomerates and breccias occur in number- 

 less varieties. 



The island is an administrative dependency of Guade- 

 loupe The capital is Fori G-ustave ; the ] pie, mainly of 



French descent, speak English. It was originally settled 



