44 P. T. CLEVE, 



Montserrat is volcanic. The rocks are trachytic and consist of white sanidine inter- 

 mixed with black hornblend. It is employed in the West-Indies as >fire-stone». The vol- 

 canic action still continues in form of souffriéres, exhaling sulphuretted hy drogen (Nugent 

 Träns. Geol. Soc. Vol. I pag. 185. 1811). 



Guadeloupe*) consists of the two islands of Basse Terre and Grande Terre, separated 

 by a narrow channel. The latter, or eastern of these islands, constitutes a flat, hilly land 

 while Basse Terre, or the western, is an entirely volcanic and very high and mountainous 

 island. 



The oldest formation of Grande Terre comprises rocks, called by de Jonnés and Du- 

 chaissaing »Pierre a ravets», and »sables volcaniques remaniés par la mer». The formation 

 contains in the lower part a yellow tufa with but few fossils, although above that stratum 

 grayish black, loose volcanic sands with numerous fossils occur. On these beds is super- 

 imposed a härd, sonorous and fine-grained limestone, containing fossil Terebratulce. Duchais- 

 saing enumerates among the fossils, found in the sandy beds, Area umbonata, Pectunculus 

 pulvinatus Lamk and Cyathina Guadeloupensis. The Pectunculus is a well known species of 

 the European Eocene formation and, to judge from the description, the series of strata 

 greatly resemble the eocene beds of S:t Bartholomew. The surface-formation of Grande 

 Terre consists of a white, tolerably härd, calcarious tufa, containing foraminifera and nu- 

 merous fossils, most of which, according to Duchaissaing , belong to still living species. 

 Among the fossil echinoderins several extinct species are recorded. Also the Lunidites 

 umbellatus is said to have been found in these beds. It seems to me to be most probable 

 that this formation is of miocene age, as, to judge from the descriptions, there are several 

 points of resemblance to the formation of Anguilla. Mr. Duchaissaing considers the for- 

 mation to be the »older pliocene». 



The third formation, or the newer pliocene of Duchaissaing, consists of 1. madre- 

 pore-formation, along the coasts, only elevated 2 — 3 meters above the sea, of 2. alluvium, 

 containing shells of the large Succinea patula Brug., and 3. Herrain a galibis», which is of 

 a very recent date, and contains human skeletons or anthropolites mixed with terrestrial 

 or beach-shells, corals and fragments of crabs. 



The neighbouring islands of Desirade and Marie Galante consist according to Mac- 

 lure of horizontal strata of coralline limestone. . 



Basseterre is still an active volcano with four volcanic centers (according to de 

 Jonnés). One of these called the »soufriére» made eruptions in 1778 and 1797. In Basse- 



') Treatises on Guadeloupe: 



1817 Macluee. Journ. of the A_cad. of Nat. Scien. of Philadelphia. Vol. I. Part. I p. 134. 

 1822, De Jonnés, Alex. Moeeau. Histoire physique des Antilles francaises. Paris. 

 1847, Duchaissaing, Pierre. Bullet. de la Soc. Géol. de France 2:ine Sér. Torne IV. Part, II p. 1093. 

 1855, » » Bullet. de la Soc. Géol. de France 2:rae Sér. Torne XII p. 753. 



1860, Damoue. Comptes Rend. Torne LI p. 559. 



1863, Payen. Bullet. de la Soc. Géol. de France 2:me Sér. Vol. XX p. 475. 

 1866, Uuppy. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Vol. XXII p. 577. 



Mr. Ch. Ste Clairk Deville has published a work: Voyage Géologique aux Antilles, but I had no op- 

 portunity to see this work complete. 



