GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE WEST INDIES 381 



mercially accessible, for the exports have never been con- 

 siderable. 



Asphalt may be said to rank next to iron as the chief 

 mineral product. This occurs in Cuba, Santo Domingo, 

 Barbados, and Trinidad. The Cuban kind is of a superior 

 quality for the purpose of making varnishes. The Bar- 

 badian "manjack 1 ' is also a species of rock asphalt valu- 

 able in fche arts. In Trinidad alone, however, docs this 

 material occur in any greal abundance. Pitch Lake being 

 the greatest asphalt-producer in the world. While build- 

 ing-stone, good enough for local uses, is abundant in all 

 the islands, they are singularly void of ornamental export 

 rock. Closely textured marbles and sandstones are 

 unknown. In the backbone of the Antillean Mountains 

 in tic two larger islands there are some fine granitoid 

 rocks, but no commercial development has been made of 

 them. 



Many hypotheses have been advanced in literature 

 concerning the origin of the West Indian Islands. Some 

 have believed that the Caribbees and Bahamas represent 

 the remnants of a great isthmus, like the present Panama 

 neck, which extended from the southern end of Florida to 

 northern South America, and this hypothetical feature 

 has been called the Windward bridge. Others have 

 looked upon the islands as decayed remnants of the 

 former eastward extension of the American continent. 

 Others still have considered the Antilles the remnants of 

 tin- ancienl Atlantis the large island which, according 

 to an ancient tradition that was credited to the Greek 

 geographers, was situated in the Atlantic Ocean west of 

 Africa, opposite the Pillars of Hercules. Plato says that 



nine thousand years before his time this was inhabited by 



a populous and powerful people, who conquered the 

 western part of Europe and Africa, and furnished a 

 tremendous force of invaders who threatened to overcome 



all the people of the M e. 1 it erraneaii, until the gods finally 



came to the rescue and senl a greal earthquake which 



