18 Dr. Maycock on the Geology of Barbadoes. 



thereon. That this was not a ground current, I infer ; first, be- 

 cause I can perceive in the coraUine aggregate no indications 

 of the island having been elevated from the bottom of the sea ; 

 and secondly, from the relative position of the calcareous and 

 argillaceous minerals, which satisfies my mind that the latter 

 were deposited in the situation they at present occupy ; for it 

 seems to me quite inconsistent to suppose that this island could 

 have been formed at the bottom of the sea, and then elevated to 

 its present altitude, without a complete destruction of all the 

 regularity of relative position of the two formations which is now 

 so strikingly evident. It is also more reasonable to attribute a 

 phaenomenon to a known sufficient cause, than to one which is 

 merely presumed to exist, from its sufficiency to explain the phae- 

 nomenon. Now, we have no evidence of the existence of a ground 

 current setting from the north-east, and we have the fullest of a 

 superficial current setting from that point. I would therefore 

 attribute the deposition of the clay and other minerals of the 

 hilly district, in their particular situation, to the influence of a 

 superficial current, — to that superficial current dependent on the 

 north-easterly trade wind, which must have been coeval with 

 the present direction of our terrestrial poles, and which, stopped 

 in its progress by the Isthmus of Darien, is reflected through the 

 gulf of Mexico, and passing between the shores of Florida, 

 the Bahama Bank constitutes the gulf-stream, so powerfully 

 affecting the navigation of the Atlantic ; and which would be 

 equally efficient at any altitude of the ocean. 



That the earth has at some period been overwhelmed by an 

 universal deluge, during which the waters rose considerably 

 above the highest mountains, is a fact established on the autho- 

 rity of the Mosaic history, and supported by the traditions of the 

 rudest nations, and the observations of enlightened geologists. 

 The mind naturally turns to the period of this stupendous catas- 

 trophe, as that at which the mountainous district of Barbadoes 

 was formed ; and feels something like certainty on this point, 

 from the geognostic situation of the salt-springs. 



The beds of saline matter over which these waters flow, and 

 from which they derive their impregnation, have in all proba- 



