Dr. Maycock on the Geology of Barhadoes. 1 1 



That portion of the coast, the aspect of which is to the west 

 and to the south, is yenerally shelving to the sea with a flat 

 shallow beach ; the south-eastern and northern coasts are, on 

 the contrary, perpendicularly precipitous from thirty to sixty 

 feet, and the water immediately becomes deep, except in some 

 of the small creeks, where steep sandy beaches occur under the 

 rocky clifls : the windward or north-eastern coast to the extent 

 of thirteen or fourteen miles, exhibits a mixed character ; the 

 low land sinking very gradually under the sea, and the rugged 

 conical hills terminating not in mural precipices, but sloping 

 abruptly to a flat extended beach. The island is nearly en- 

 circled with rocks, many of which are immense masses, sepa- 

 rated and rolled a considerable distance from their original 

 situation ; but the greater part of this rocky belt consists of the 

 substance of the island extended under the surface of the water 

 in tables, and rising in reefs, or insulated rocks, at no consider- 

 able distance from the shore. 



The low flat land occupies the northern, southern, and wes- 

 tern parts of the island ; and rises by precipitous broken accli- 

 vities, running generally parallel to the coast, in terraces of flat 

 open country to the highest land, situate something to the 

 northward of the centre of the island. This progressive rise is, 

 indeed, sometimes interrupted by the occurrence of valleys ; 

 only one of which, termed The Valley, is deserving particular 

 notice. This tract of low land passes from the windward coast 

 of the thickets between two elevated ridges, denominated the 

 Ridge and the Cliff, through the parishes of Saint Philip, and 

 Saint George, to Bridge Town, forming the only general inter- 

 ruption to the regular terraced rise from the sea to the highest 

 land. If the sea were fifty or sixty feet above its present level, 

 Barbadoes would be divided into two islets of an equal size by 

 a narrow strait occupying the site of what is now the valley. 



Mount Hallaby is the highest land of the island, its altitude 

 being upwards of nine hundred feet. From this point the high 

 land branches ofif,1n steep precipitous ridges, in two directions, 

 northerly and easterly, and southerly and easterly towards tlic 

 sea on the windward coast, suddenly diminishing in height as 



