244 APPENDIX, 



To the south, the land in general is poor, and of a reddish 

 hue; and the same extends over a considerable part of 



the interior country." 



/ 



ISLAND OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER. 



VOL. I. BOOK III PAGE 429* 



" The interior part of the country consists of many 

 rugged precipices and barren mountains. Of these, the 

 loftiest is Mount Misery (evidently a decayed volcano) which 



rises 3711 feet in perpendicular height from the sea. 

 Nature* however, has made abundant amends for the 

 sterility of the mountains, by the fertility she has bestow- 

 ed upon the plains. No part of the West Indies, that I have 

 Seen, possesses even the same species of soil that is found 

 in Saint Christopher's ; it is in general a dark grey loam, so 

 light and porous as to be penetrable by the slightest ap- 

 plication of the hoe, and I conceive it to be- the produc- 

 tion of subterraneous fires, the black ferruginous pumice of 

 naturalists, finely incorporated with a pure loam of virgin 

 mould. The under stratum is gravel, from eight to 

 twelve inches deep. Clay is no where found except at a 

 considerable height in the mountains. By what process 

 of nature the soil which J have mentioned, becomes 



more 



