Geology of St. Croicff. 69 



Sometimes these valleys and the impendmg momitains are 

 wild and pictm-esque in the extreme ; in other cases, they are 

 highly cultivated. The contrast is owing principally to the dif- 

 ferent- degrees of hardness in the rocks. 



One is at first surprised, that any portion of soil can be retained 

 on the cultivated parts of the mountains, as they are so steep that, 

 in ordinary cases, it would all be washed away. It would be in 

 this, but for the fact, that the cane is planted in deep trenches, 

 dug horizontally along the sides of the mountains, which prevent 

 in a great measure the flowing of water ; and also, that the rocks 

 are continually decomposing and forming a new soil. Indeed 

 this process of decomposition may every where be seen at present 

 going on, in sections of roads cut through the rocks, where the 

 passage from the solid, unchanged strata beneath, to the cultivated 

 soil on the surface, is so gradual, that no distinct line of separa- 

 tion can be drawn. 



A similar explanation is applicable to the different states in 

 which the talus is found at the foot of the mountains. In some 

 places, it is many feet deep, but thoroughly pulverized ; in others, 

 it remains in the state of broken fragments, covered with so little 

 soil, as not to be susceptible of cultivation. This is strikingly 

 seen at Ham's Bluff, which presents a stratum of undecomposed 

 detritus twenty-five or thirty feet in depth. 



The thickness of this formation is at least several hundred feet 

 On the west coast, north of Sprat Hall, the strata are seen stand- 

 ing side by side, in uninterrupted succession, for several rods ] 

 and, were it not for the gorges which break, occasionally, their 

 continuity, the thickness might appear much greater. 



As to its age^ I am not prepared to express a decided opinion. 

 On the one hand, it cannot be so low down as the older slates or 

 the metamorphic rocks of Lyell : and, on the other^ its composi- 

 tion, structure, and high inclination, bear a striking resemblance 

 to those of greywacke. I did not observe it associated with 

 older rocks, except in one place, near South Gate, where a bed of 

 sienite occurs, thirty or forty rods in extent. As to organic re- 

 mains, though I made diligent search, I found none ; from which 

 it must at least be inferred, that, if they exist at all, they are very 

 uncommon. I ought, however, to mention, that, on the road 

 from Little La Grange to Punch, I discovered in this formation, 

 from two to three hundred feet above the level of the sea, a bed 



