Vol. 57.] PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ANTIGFA. 491 



person of Dr. Thomas Nicholson, who wrote a short account of the 

 geology of the island in the ' Antigua Almanac & Register,' ^ a 

 work forgotten or lost. Prof. S. Hovey ^ visited the island, with 

 Nugent as his guide, and published a sketch of the ' Geology of 

 Antigua ' in 1839 (as he says) on account of the inaccessibility of 

 Nugent's paper in America. In this publication there was little 

 marked advance. Nugent had described the igneous belt of the 

 western portion of the island ; the ' clay ' and ' conglomerate '-zone 

 in the centre, with the chert-deposits containing silicified wood, 

 freshwater shells, etc. ; and the fossiliferous w^hite marl and lime- 

 stones occupying the eastern or larger belt ; as also the recent 

 coral-fringes. Even in 1818, Nugent had recognized the Tertiary 

 character of the marls, and said (Am. Journ. Sci. vol. i, p. 142) that 

 in the West India Islands there was 



' proof of an extensive formation, more recent than those to which naturalists 

 have heretofore principally confined their attention.' 



Nugent's paper showed a remarkable degree of perspicuity, and re- 

 mained the only classic on the geology of the island for over sixty 

 years, until the appearance of the studies of M. J. C. Purves, 

 published at Brussels in 1885.^ 



At the time of my visit, I had not seen the work of M. Purves 

 (Curator of the Hoyal Natural History Museum in Brussels), which 

 will be referred to in succeeding pages, and I am not aware that 

 any geologist had visited the island for the purposes of investiga- 

 tion subsequent to M. Purves, mitil ray own visit in 1896-97. But 

 I met there, interested in the geology of their island, two gentlemen, 

 whose assistance and kindness I wish to acknowledge, Mr. Erank 

 Watt, the. Island Chemist, and Mr. W. E. Forrest. The E-ev. 

 Mr. Branch is also keenly interested in the natural history of the 

 island. 



None of the previous writers had made a study of the two 

 formations more recent than the marls, or of the evolution of the 

 ])hysical features since the Oligocene Period (age of the limestones) ; 

 all of which phenomena were the special objects of my visit, for the 

 purpose of correlating them with the later life-history of the Greater 

 Antilles and the adjacent continent, especially the evidence of great 

 changes of level of land and sea. My theoretical expectations 

 were realized. 



II. SiTUATioi^ AND Physical Chakacteristics. 



Antigua and Barbuda rise from the same bank, which occupies 

 the north-eastern portion of the chain of the Lesser Antilles.^ 



^ A copy was seen by Prof. Hovey in 1839. 



- At one time Professor in Yale and Amherst Colleges. See Am. Journ. Sci. 

 ser. 1, vol. sxxv (1839) pp. 75-85. 



^ ' Esquisse geologique de File d'Antigoa ' Bull. Mas. Roy. Hist. Nat. Eelg. 

 vol. iii (1884-85) pp. 273-318. 



■^ See U.S. Hyclrographic Chart No. 40, or the corresponding British 

 Admiralty Chart. 



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