GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW. 87 



It is evident that our mountains also belong to the same for- 

 mation. 



Excepting Mr. C. Deville, who made but a short stay in 

 Trinidad, no professional geologist has ever visited this island ; 

 but that gentleman's work on the Antilles is still in print, and 

 part of it only has yet been published, so that it is rather 

 difficult for me to give any account or comprehensive view of 

 the geology of Trinidad. I must, therefore, be satisfied with 

 offering only a descriptive outline of our mountains and soils. 



The transition limestone is met with in nearly every part of 

 the island ; it is abundant at the islets which contribute to form 

 the Bocas channels, and there exist, at Huevas and Gasparil 

 Grande, natural caves in that formation. The same rock is appa- 

 rent at Punta Gorda, in the mountains which border our vallies 

 between Diego-Martin and Cuesa, in the valley of Maraval par- 

 ticularly on the Moka estate in Santa Cruz, near Port of Spain, 

 and all along the northern range. At the heads of the Aripo 

 and Oropuche rivers are likewise to be seen caves, ornamented 

 with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. I have also heard 

 from a Chayma Indian living in the neighbourhood, that near 

 the latter river the soil is rent, in many places, into deep chasms. 

 Both caverns are haunted by Guacharos, of which they form the 

 abode. Limestone was also observed to the eastward of Mount 

 Tamana, on the track leading to the Cocal ; it is, therefore, 

 highly probable that it would be found in the Labranche range, 

 as also at Manzanilla, which is a continuation of the same, and at 

 Montserrat, on the westward. Our limestone is, in general, com- 

 pact, of a bluish-gray colour, destitute of petrifications, and 

 traversed by veins of calcareous spar. Its beds, as may be seen 

 in the quarries near Port of Spain, are largely admixed with clay 

 and marl. 



On crossing a ridge called the " Saddle" between the Moka 

 estate, in Maraval, and the valley of Santa Cruz, we meet with a 

 friable limestone of a yellowish colour ; the same occurs at Chaca- 

 chacarreo. Also in the district of Savanna Grande, and in 

 several parts of the Naparimas, are to be seen breccias, composed 

 almost entirely of seashells, but particularly of ostracites. Small 

 crevices sometimes occur in the calcareous rocks, lined with a 

 beautiful crystallisation of carbonate of lime, of a topaz colour. 



Gypsum is also abundant ; there is a pit of it near the town of 



