2Q6 souffriere of montserrat. 



XI. 



An Account of " The Sulphur," or " Souffritre" of the 

 Island <f Montserrat : by Nicholas Nugent, M. D. 

 Hon. Member of the Geological Society*. 



Occasion of 

 the visit. 



Face of the 

 island. 



\_J/N my voyage last year (October 1810) from Antigua to 

 Englaud the packet touched at Montserrat, and my curiosity 

 having been excited by the accounts I received of a place in 

 the island called f* The Sulphur," and which, from the 

 descriptions of several persons, I conceived might be the 

 crater of an inconsiderable volcano, I determined to avail 

 myself of the stay of the packet to visit that place. 



The island of Montserrat, so called by the Spaniards 

 from a fancied resemblance to the celebrated mountain of 

 Catalonia, is every where extremely rugged and moun- 

 tainous, and the only roads, except in one direction, are 

 narrow bridle paths winding through the recesses of the 

 mountains; there is hardly a possibility of using wheeled 

 carriages, and the produce of the estates is brought to the 

 Journey to the place of shipment on the backs of mules. Accompanied 

 Sulphur. by a friend, I accordingly set out on horseback from the 



town of Plymouth, which is situate at the foot of the 

 mountains on the seashore. We proceeded by a circuitous 

 and steep route about six miles, gradually ascending the 

 mountain, which consisted entirely of a uniform por- 

 phyritic rock, broken every where into fragments and large 

 blocks, and which in many places was so denuded of soil, 

 as to render it a matter of astonishment how vegetation, 

 and particularly 'hat of the cane, should thrive so well. 

 The far greater part of the whole island is made up of this 

 porphyry, which by some systematics would be considered 

 as referrible to the newest floetztrap formation, and by 

 others would be re^a'ded only as a variety of lava. It is a 

 compact and highly indurated argillaceous rock of a gray 

 colour, replete with large and perfect crystals of white 

 feldspar and black hornblende. Rocks of this description 



.* Trans, of the Gcol. Soc. vol. I, p. 185. 



generally 



