FEWKES] CULTUEE AREAS IN THE WEST INDIES 59 



strated which objects are the most ancient; whether the West Indian 

 was derived from the continental, or vice versa, or whether both 

 independently originated is one of the unsolved problems of Ameri- 

 can archeology. 



The West Indies are geologically divided into two great divisions, 

 known as the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The separation of the 

 two is a channel, or possibly the Anegada Passage, between Porto 

 Rico and the Virgin Islands.^^ The former division includes Cuba, 

 Jamaica, Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Porto Rico; the latter, a chain 

 of smaller islands extending from the Virgin Islands to the northern 

 coast of South America. 



The antiquities of these divisions differ in many characters; for 

 instance, the majority of the edged-stone celts from the Greater 

 Antilles have a petaloid or almond-shaped form, being sharp at one 

 end, pointed at the other, finely polished and destitute of a groove for 

 the attachment of a handle. Ninety per cent of all celts found in 

 Jamaica, according to Prof. Duerden, and, it may be added, a still 

 larger percentage of those from Porto Rico, Cuba, and Haiti, have 

 this petaloid form. Across the Anegada Passage, in the Lesser An- 

 tilles, this proportion no longer holds true; the relative number of 

 petaloid forms diminishes at a leap, and true axes take their numeri- 

 cal predominance. In the volcanic islands veiy few petaloids occur. 

 Here the points of the almond-shaped celt are replaced by wings 

 or extensions — a form rarely found in the Greater Antilles, but con- 

 stituting about 90 per cent of all the stone implements in these 

 islands. This radical change stamps the petaloid, although it is 

 represented in all the Antilles, as a northern type characteristic of 

 the Greater Antilles, while the eared ax may be regarded as more 

 strictly southern in its distribution. 'Shell celts are universal, but 

 their relative proportion is small in all of the islands except Bar- 

 bados, where they constitute 99 per cent of the total number of 

 celts. A comparison of pottery and other archeological objects shows 

 a similar separation of the islands into the two divisions correspond- 

 ing with those above mentioned. 



The West Indian geographical areas are considered in the fol- 

 lowing order: 



1. Trinidad. 



2. Barbados. 



3. St. Vincent-Grenada. 



4. Dominica. 



5. Martinique. 



6. Guadeloupe. 



"The Bahamas constitute a special group, the culture o.f the al)origines resembling 

 that of Porto Rico in many particulars. 



