Geology of oe 75 
Arr. IV. a Cimliaas of ‘guibais by Prof. 8. Hovey, late of Yale 
College, Ct., and Amherst College, Mass. 
AsI pieted but two or three weeks at Antigua, sad as ‘fimo 
were principally devoted to a public object, I should not feel pre- 
pared to give even an outline of the geology of the island, with- 
out aid from foreign:sources. ‘This I fortunately have, in an in- 
teresting article, prepared by Dr. Thomas Nugent, and published 
in the fifth volume of the Transactions of the London Geological 
Society ; and in another brief notice, written for the Antigua.Al- 
‘manac and Register by Dr. Thomas Nicholson. I had the hap- 
piness to become acquainted with both of these distinguished 
gentlemen, and to visit in company with them several of the most 
interesting localities of the island. Were the articles, to which I 
have referred, before the American public, I should. not attempt 
add any thing more; but as they are nearly or quite inaccessi- 
ble to most of the ree of the Journal of Science, a brief sketch 
the Beclogy: of the sai will not, I wath; be an unacceptable 
offering: 
- Perhaps there i is no > island i in the West Indies, whose potheahs is 
so rich in variety and interest. It contains all the three forma- 
tions, viz. indurated clay, recent’ calcareous deposits, and trap, 
which I mentioned in a preceding article as constituting the West 
India islands. They are all distinctly developed also within a 
territory of moderate extent, and yet are separated by broad lines 
of demarcation. But what constitutes the peculiar charm of the 
geology of Antigua, are the uncommonly beautiful and variega- 
ted silicious fossils with which it abounds. In this respect, I 
am not aware of the existence of any deposit in the world, which 
can be compared with it. I should confine my remarks to these 
"outtactdiniry relics; were I not persuaded, that a knowledge of 
them must create a desire to learn something of their geological 
relations. For the purpose of best accomplishing the object which 
I have in view, I shall not follow a strictly geological arrangement 
in my observations, but having noticed the trap formation, 1 shall 
describe the two others in the order of their contiguity, and then 
give some account of the silicious minerals and fossils which are 
more or less common to all the formations. 
