XVI INTRODUCTION. 



from geologically recent islands like Sombrero, Barbuda, An- 

 tigua, and Barbados. St. Kitts may be said to form a twin 

 island with the adjoining Nevis, wdiich has a soufriere of its 

 own rising to 2,000 feet. 



Montserrat comes next, another small volcanic island, well 

 known now for the large amount of lime-juice it exports. We 

 then pass by the lonely island of Redonda, with its cloud- 

 capped summit. Nearly all the higher peaks of the Windward 

 Islands are usually hidden from view by a cap of clouds, massed 

 against the windward sides, where the trade winds, saturated 

 with moisture, strike the cold flanks of the summit. 



The huge central mass of Guadeloupe, perhaps the most im- 

 posing of the West Indian volcanoes, rises to a height of at 

 least 5,000 feet. The larger island is separated by a swamj) 

 from the Grande Terre, a low bank of recent limestone at the 

 base of the central volcano of Guadeloupe. The steep slopes 

 near the summit are covered with forests, but pass gradually 

 into the long, gentle cultivated slopes, which in their turn fade 

 imperceptibly into the arid tracts of Grande Terre itself. 



On the south, Guadeloupe is flanked by outlying islands, the 

 Saintes and Marie-Galante, where we dredge in vain for some of 

 the treasures of the deep, supposed to have been fished up in 

 the intervening channels by French naturalists at the beginning 

 of this century. 



As we approach Martinique, it seems to consist of three sep- 

 arate mountain masses, not smoothly rounded, as in the more 

 northern islands, but with deeply furrowed flanks, cut out by 

 rains and torrents, and innumerable winding valleys, cultivated 

 from the water's edge almost to the highest summits. The 

 island is crossed in all directions by exceUent roads, and dotted 

 over with viUages and plantations. The slopes of the deeper 

 valleys and the more inaccessible bottom lands are covered with 

 forests and with groves of tree ferns. Near the plantations, 

 avenues of royal palms rear their heads high above the dark 

 mango, orange, and lime trees. On the lee side of the island 

 is St. Pierre, the commercial centre of the French West Indies,' 

 where at every step one is reminded of a French provincial 

 town. To the south is the naval station of Port de France, 



