538 PEOP. J. W. SPENCER ON THE GEOLOGICAL AND [NoV. T9OI, 



was subsequently refilled by marine beds of sand. All these strata 

 appear horizontal. The situation of the gravel-beds is such as 

 would favour the accumulation of coarse materials at this point, 

 while finer materials would be deposited at other localities. Over- 

 lying the lava-beds on the northern side of the island, and also 2 

 miles south-eastward, at the mouth of a valley, are beds of hori- 

 zontally stratified volcanic sand well exposed to a height of 50 

 feet. From their extensive development and position, they are 

 evidently of the same age as the coarser gravels near Old Road. 

 The coarse gravels of this latter-named locality give form to a 

 sloping plain which rises to a height of 200 feet, suggesting that the 

 gravels occur up to this elevation, though covered by land- washes. 

 In a ravine upon the flanks of Monkey Hill, behind Basse Terre, 

 to which I was taken by Dr. "Branch, there had been exposed a 

 shell-bearing bed, where he had collected several marine shells of 

 still living species. This was at an altitude of about 300 feet. 

 Mr. Cleve also recorded the occurrence of this or a similar bed. 

 Their connection with the coastal sections was not made out. 



Section of the St. Kitts Gravels (1) dissected by a ravine (R), refilled 

 with stratified sand (2) and since partly re-opened. Gravels 

 covered ivith surface-wash (3). 



but it is most reasonable to suppose that the subsidence, which 

 permitted of the accumulation of the gravels, was that which 

 allowed of the deposition of the shell-beds found by Dr. Branch 

 and Mr. Cleve, in which case the subsidence reached a depth of 

 300 feet. 



From the above section near Old Road, it is seen that the 

 gravel-beds were lifted above the sea-level and denuded, with 

 the production of moderate-sized ravines, thus marking a different 

 epoch of change of level, followed by another subsidence to a depth 

 of 40 or 50 feet, and the refilling of the little ravine. The whole 

 has since been re-elevated. 



These gravels and volcanic sands occupy the same position in the 

 succession of the West Indian deposits as the Upper Petit-Bourg 

 Series of Guadeloupe, the Cassada-Garden Gravels of Antigua, or 

 the gravels of St. Martin, whicli are provisionally correlated with 

 the Columbia or mid-Pleistocene formation of the American con- 

 tinent ; while the fillings of the small valleys dissecting them are 

 the accumulations of a short interval of later date, represented by 

 the low-lying shelly beds of St, Martin, Antigua, and Guadeloupe. 



