Dr. Nugent on the Sonffrlere cf Mont s err at, 189 



substance any where in situ. It is very probable that the bed of the 

 glen or ravine might throw some light on the internal structure of 

 the place, but it was too deep, and its banks infinitely too precipitous, 

 for me to venture down to it. I understood that there was a similar 

 exhalation and deposition of sulphur on the side of a mountain not 

 more than a mile distant in a straight line ; and a subterranean com- 

 4hunication is supposed to exist between the two places. 



Almost every island in the western Archipelago, particularly those 

 which have the highest land, has in like manner its " Sulphur," or 

 as the French better express it, its " SoiiffriereT This is particularly 

 the case with Nevis, St. Kitt's, Guadaloupe, Dominica, Martinico, 

 St. Lucia, and St. Vincent's. Some islands have several such 

 places, analogous I presume to this of Montserrat ; but in others, 

 as Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent's there are decided and 

 well characterized volcanos, which are occasionally active, and 

 throw out ashes, scorise and lava with flame. The volcano of St. 

 Vincent's is represented by Dr. Anderson, and others who have 

 visited it, as extremely large and magnificent, and would bear a 

 comparison with some of those of Europe. These circumstances 

 appear to have been entirely overlooked by geologists in their spe- 

 culations concerning the origin and formation of these islands. It 

 has indeed occurred to most persons, on surveying the regular chain 

 of islands, extending from the southern Cape of Florida to the mouths 

 of the Orinoco, as exhibited on the map, to conclude that it origi- 

 nally formed part of the Americcra Continent, and that the encroach- 

 ments of the sea have left only the higher parts of the land, as in- 

 sular points above its present level. But this hypothesis, however 

 simple and apparently satisfactory in itself, will be found to accord 

 very partially with the geological structure of the different islands. 

 Many of them are made up entirely of vast accretions of marine 



