34 J On the Caufe of Earth/juaJiei. 



logous to the coolnefs or drynefs occafioned by thefe different 

 pofitions, 



^^. The mountains of countries fubjeft to great rains 

 abound, in general, with very hard rocks which rife abr-.ipt- 

 )y ; the places which are lefs fleep are covered with compact, 

 red, black, and fat earth, which produces vigorous trees of a 

 dark green foliage, loaded with creeping plants, and furrounded 

 by herbaceous ihrubs, and heaps of manure arifing from the 

 rotten leaves and trunks. 



36. The mountains of arid countries, being compofed of 

 a great deal of light eartli, are rounded at the fumniits ; they 

 nave in general a more gentle declivity than thofe of rainy 

 countries, and, when too rapid, fragments of them crumble 

 down : the trees which grow on thele mountains produce 

 very hard timber, and fcarcely any creeping plants are found 

 near them. 



37. The earth of mountains watered by rains being com- 

 pajSt, as obferved in the 35th obf^rvation, does not permit 

 the rain water to penetrate them ; it trickles down the fur- 

 face, and flows into the ravines, at the fame time that it falls 

 from the heavens. 



38. The mountains in arid countries are in general co- 

 vered with calcareous earth or chalk, and the fragments of 

 other tender flones mixed with the powder of dried vegetables, 

 which altogether form a fpongy light earth. This earth is 

 eafily penetrated by rain water, and it retains it in the boiom 

 of the mountains or of the eminences by which they are fur- 

 rounded. This water efcapes merely by a (low filtration, 

 which produces continual fprings that maintain the flreams 

 in the ravines ; and thefe, in their turn, fupply the rivers that 

 fall into the fca. It is for this reafon that thofe parts of St. 

 Domingo towards the weft have more ravines and running 

 •ftreams^than the northern and eaftern parts of the ifland. 

 The cafe is the fame in the Great Antilles. 



39. The calcareous ftones found on the mountains of the 

 weft part of St. Domingo exhibit the empty nefts of the po- 

 lypes by which they were formed. Thefe foflils are found in 

 all the mountains of St. Marc and the Gonaives in fuch 

 abundance, that when broken with a large hammer it is 

 more difficult to find any vvithout ihe impreffion of a madre- 

 pore than thofe from which it is effaced*. 



40. In 



* To afcertain with certainty whtther thefe fodils have been left in 

 confcqucnce of the furface of tlia fea becoming lower, I oufed a well ta 

 b>: dug at tlie bottom of a rock on a plantation which I had oppofue to the 

 L'jpc Town, in order to ere£l there a machine 1 had conftrufled at a grta: 



expcnfe, 



