Dr. Maycock on the Geology of BarBadoes. 13 



grains of which are calcareous. It is quarried for the purposes 

 of building, and, being sufficiently porous, is employed for the 

 filtration of water. It sometimes appears disposed to assume the 

 slaty structure, and when the beds are of considerable thickness, 

 they are stratified. Calcareous spar also, and calc sinter occur 

 abundantly; and I have seen small specimens of white granular 

 limestone. They are found imbedded in the common calcareous 

 rock, and, like the spar, they have been deposited in accidental 

 cavities at a recent period. 



The whole of the calcareous portion of the island presents nu- 

 merous rents and fissures ; the smaller are filled with crystallized 

 and other modifications of carbonate of lime ; the larger remain 

 open, and are the deep precipitous ravines or gullies, which are 

 so very numerous in the higher parts of this district, and which 

 become during the rainy season, the conducting channels of 

 temporary torrents. Like most other calcareous formations of 

 recent date, it is extremely cavernous ; and dislocation and 

 sinking of the surface occasionally takes place at the present 

 time ; and, from general appearances, we must conclude that 

 they happened very frequently, and to considerable extent, at 

 former periods. It is to this cause that the island is plentifully 

 supplied with those fissures, denominated sucks, through which 

 the water, frequently lodged on the surface, is drawn oflT and 

 conducted to the ocean by means of subterranean channels ; and 

 to this cause, together with the breaking away of the face of 

 hills, is owing the precipitous mural cliffs so common on the 

 coast, and in the interior of the calcareous district. 



The hilly district, or that part of the island which has been 

 denominated Scotland and below the Cliff, is principally com- 

 posed of mineral substances belonging to the clay genus ; par- 

 ticularly loam, potters'-clay, slate-clay, and clay-stone. There 

 is also found here a fine grained friable sand-stone, which is for 

 the most part micaceous ; a ferruginous conglomerate, or pud- 

 ding stone ; quartzy sand-stpne, flint, and iron-flint in balls and 

 fragments ; gypsum, yellow earth, fullers' earth ; and a variety 

 of the ores of iron, such as clay iron-stone, compact black iron- 

 stone, compact and ochrcy brown iron-stone ; bituminous shale, 



