144 GEOLOGY OF THE WEST INDIES. [Nov. 



terre. This blue rock is placed on a bed of cinders^ and 

 takes the form of an irregular basalt. 



From St. Rose to Delahay, along the coast, the head 

 lands appear of solid rocks, hke currents of lava, separated 

 by narrow sandy vallies, the sand being partly white and 

 calcarious, formed by the trituration of shells; and partly 

 black and ferruginous crystalline, from the decomposition 

 of solid lava: this ferruginous sand is found in all volcanic 

 countries, and frequently is a distinguishing characteristic 

 of volcanic regions. At a head land, about one league 

 north of Pigeon Island, called Malendure, there occurs a 

 current of red cinders, filled with small prisms of red stil- 

 bitc, and having loose pieces of lava mixed, containing 

 also the red stilbite; this makes the third locality where 

 I found the red stilbite, two of them, viz. Vesuvius and 

 diis, are undoubtedly volcanic, the other, the valley of Fal- 

 sa; in the Tirol, has been supposed to be of Neptunian 

 origin by the Wernerians. Along the coast of Basseterre 

 is found a mixture of cinders and lava, but more solid lava 

 in currents, than in the other islands. 



About six leagues to the top of the cone, where the 

 crater had been, and where the soufriere is now, I found 

 a chasm or crack, in the mountain, which had all the ap- 

 pearance of having been once a crater, but which had been 

 closed by some convulsion, where, by the removal of the 

 middle, the sides had been impelled together with such 

 force, as to break up the walls, and leave the whole in the 

 greatest confusion. The fumerols are on the side of this 

 crack, without any accumulation of sulphur, or alum rock, 

 for these substances fall into the crack as fast as they are 

 formed. The scenery is exceedingly rugged and wild; 

 the rocks broken in immensely large masses, and irregu- 



