144 Mr. De la Becheow the Geology of Jamaica. 



remembered^ that in describing- a remote^ and, if I may so speak, a new geo- 

 logical country, in which the identification and general relations of its con- 

 stituent rocks are either imperfectly or not at all illustrated by previous know- 

 ledge, there is scarcely an alternative between this and a description too vague 

 to be useful. For example : if the geologist were describing the course of the 

 Chalk or Oolitic series in any portion of the European basin, he would be 

 guided at once by his previous knowledge of these formations, as to what cir- 

 cumstances were really material in their physical history, and what were merely 

 subordinate and unimportant; and assuming the same general information on 

 the part of his readers, he might dismiss the subject with all the spirit of a 

 rapid sketch. But in treating of a formation hitherto unexamined, the White 

 Limestone of Jamaica, for instance, the case is entirely altered : all local cir- 

 cumstances, then become of temporary importance, because it is only from the 

 more extended comparison of these that their true relative value can be ascer- 

 tained. With regard to faults of omission, a tropical cHmate may perhaps be 

 urged in extenuation; for, not to speak of that incapacity for exertion, whether 

 of body or mind, which it is so calculated to produce, the physical obstacles 

 which it opposes to the researches of the geologist are neither few nor trifling. 

 The tropical forests present not the least of these ; for splendid and luxuriant 

 as they are, they are from their very luxuriance almost impenetrable without 

 the aid of persons to cut a path in them, the parasitical plants festooning from 

 tree to tree, and interlacing one with the other. 



As yet, no geological description has appeared of Jamaica, nor indeed of 

 either of the large islands of Cuba, or Hayti ; so that we have few or no facts 

 previously ascertained, to guide us while investigating the rock formations in 

 Jamaica : neither can we trace the various changes that the rocks have under- 

 gone within moderate distances, by comparing the structure of one island with 

 the other. The geological accounts therefore which Humboldt has given us 

 of Mexico and South America become highly valuable, as they aftbrd us infor- 

 mation respecting countries not very remote from Jamaica. The only private 

 collection, I believe, of Jamaica rocks or fossils existing in England, previ- 

 ously to my return from the investigation which is the subject of this memoir, 

 was in the possession of Richard Bright, Esq. of Ham Green near Bristol. This 

 collection was made in Jamaica by his son Mr. Robert Bright a few years 

 ago ; and the inspection of it, before my embarkation, was of great use to me 

 in directing my attention to those points in the island whence they had been 

 procured. 



The examination of rock formations in countries far distant from each other 

 cannot fail of exciting the highest interest in the geologist ; for he then has 



