366 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. VII. 



sulphuretted hydrogen, sending an offensive odor through the whole 

 district. 



Situated near one of the mouths of the Oronoco, Port of Spain is 

 a city of commercial importance, and having been almost destroyed by 

 conflagrations, it has been rebuilt with a modern appearance. Near it is 

 located the largest and most celebrated botanical garden in the West 

 Indies, except that of Jamaica. 



In Trinidad there is a larger percentage of whites than in the other 

 islands described, but they embrace several nationalities. Besides the 

 negro labourers, there are many Hindoos imported to the sugar estates. 

 Being on the edge of the belt of Trade Winds, with the intervening 

 mountains, the island seems much warmer than Barbados, which is 

 separated by less than two degrees of latitude. Trinidad has direct 

 steamship communications with New York, but not by way of the 

 Windward Islands. The Halifax steamers touch it once every four 

 weeks. The Royal Mail line gives a fortnightly connection with 

 Barbados. Occasional vessels of various lines also stop here, by which 

 one is able to reach the Venezuelan ports, the Isthmus of Panama, 

 and Jamaica. 



Barbados. 



This outlying island (see map, Plate E, appended) is situated 

 somewhat more than a hundred miles east of the main Antillean Chain, 

 but on the same submarine plateau (see maps, Plates D and E). The 

 surface of Barbados rises in terrace steps, or slopes, to an altitude of 

 1,104 feet. Except in, and adjacent to the Scotland valley, on the 

 northeastern side of the island, the surface rocks are composed of a 

 white limestone, or a coral formation. But in the valley referred to, 

 and adjacent to the coast, there are beds of sand, accumulated when 

 this region was connected with the continent, and received the sands 

 carried down the rivers — perhaps the ancient Oronoco. This deposit 

 cannot be newer than the early Eocene days, and I am inclined to 

 regard it as belonging to the Cretaceous period. Upon its surface is a 

 marly deposit containing foraminifera and radiolaria, like similar 

 accumulations in Trinidad. These were formed in oceanic abysses at a 

 depth of two miles or more, in a geological epoch that may be referred 

 to the Eocene period. The region, after having sunken to such a great 

 depth, rose so that upon the oceanic beds we find a shallow-water 

 formation of white limestones, as in Antigua and the other islands 

 mentioned before, belonging to the Oligocene series. During the long 



