1901-2.] The Windward Islands of the West Indies. 367 



Miocene-Pliocene period the land underwent changes of level, at times 

 very high, so that the broad valleys between the island and the main 

 group were being modified into rolling features by atmospheric agents, 

 acting for a very long time. About the close of the Pliocene period, 

 the region was depressed, so that only a very small islet remained away 

 out in the Atlantic. Then followed the great elevation of the region, 

 when all the islands and the continent were united. This was succeeded 

 by another subsidence, so that the terraces round Barbados were cut out 

 of the new coral reefs, as the land was again rising. Since their 

 elevation the streams and rains have begun to excavate small canons 

 into the margins of the terrace steps. The occurrences of these terraces 

 and little valleys give diversity to the surface features, for there are no 

 mountains here. (See figure i, Plate VIII.). The sea is encroaching 

 upon the east coast, as in all the other islands, on account of which all 

 the ports are on their western or leeward side. An illustration of the 

 encroachment is shown in figure 2, Plate VIII., where the raised coral 

 reef is breaking away and great blocks are lying along the coast. 



The fertile sugar estates have been occupied by numerous owners, 

 which has given rise to social conditions somewhat different from that 

 found in the other islands. Within twenty years after the arrival of the 

 first planters (1625), the population rose to 50,000, including many 

 cavaliers, Irish labourers, and Indians stolen from other islands. The 

 population now numbers 200,000, of whom one-fourth are whites. As 

 the area is only 166 square miles, it is the most densely settled country 

 in the world, so much so that the labourers on the estates get only three 

 days' work a week, and another set work the remaining time — and that 

 at twenty cents a day. More than half of the coloured infants die within 

 a year, but even this does not keep down the increase. These conditions 

 intensify misery caused by the ruined sugar trade. The people live 

 on "ground" provisions (sweet potatoes, at fifteen cents a bushel, when 

 bought ; yams, a large tuber) ; bread-fruit, used green in place of 

 potatoes ; sugar cane and some fruits. They also get a small quantity 

 of fish at times, of which the flying fish is most delicious. 



In the church of the parish of St. John is the tomb of Theodore 

 Paleologos, the last representative of the Christian Emperors of the 

 Eastern empire, he having died here an exile in the seventeenth 

 century. 



