GRENADA AND THE GRENADINES. 25 1 



extensive tropical land." These remarks apply to the 

 Greater Antilles, probably, and do not preclude Hum- 

 boldt's hypothesis that the Lesser Antilles are islands 

 " heaved up by fire." 



At a meeting of the National Academy, held in 

 Washington, in April, 1879, Professor Agassiz read a 

 report of his dredging operations during the previous 

 winter, expressing the opinion that he had brought to 

 light the outlines of old continents, of which the islands 

 enclosing the Caribbean Sea are the remnants. Mr. 

 Bland, of New York, the well-known conchologist, 

 who has especially studied the land-shell distribution 

 of the West Indies for many years, adds his testimony 

 as to the continental character of the faunas of the dif- 

 ferent West Indian islands. 



And these few general remarks upon the Lesser 

 Antilles as a whole lead me to call the reader's atten- 

 tion to their regularity of position, as shown upon the 

 map. It will be seen that the distance between any 

 two adjacent islands lying between St. Vincent and 

 Barbuda, is about thirty miles : from Barbuda to 

 Antigua, from Antigua to Montserrat, Montserrat to 

 Guadeloupe, from the latter to Dominica, from Do- 

 minica to Martinique, Martinique to St. Lucia, St. 

 Lucia to St. Vincent. A sixty-mile circuit, with 

 Grenada as a center, touches St. Vincent, Tobago, 

 and Trinidad, and includes all of the Grenadines. 



The almost semicircular line they describe cannot 

 but be noticed ; nor will it fail to be suggested to the 

 most casual observer that, if not vestiges of a con- 

 tinent, these islands once formed a continuous barrier 

 between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean ; 

 though facts may prove the contrary. I may also 



