CONFIGURATION OF THE ISLANDS 263 



between some of the islands and banks. An elevation of the land or 

 lowering of the sea of 100 fathoms (600 feet), for instance, wonld largely 

 reduce the number of islands. It would connect all of the Virgin islands 

 with Porto Rico, where they genetically belong, but these islands and 

 the entire Great Antillean province would still be separated from the 

 Windward chain by the Anegada trough, an abyss of over 2 miles in 

 depth. This 100-fathom contour would gather Anguilla, Saint Martin, 

 Saint Bartholomew, and other islands of that vicinity, such as Dog, Seal, 

 and Tintamarie, into a common land larger than the present area of 

 Trinidad. To the southeast Barbuda, Antigua, and the adjacent reefs 

 and rocks would constitute another land area nearly as large. The great 

 Saba bank to the southwest of Saba would appear above the water as 

 an island almost as large as Guadeloupe. 



Saint Eustatius, Saint Christopher, and Nevis, now separate islands 

 (just as Saint Lucia would constitute a number of islands if lowered a 

 similar number of fathoms), would stand up as a continuous volcanic 

 ridge. Montserrat would still continue as a solitary volcanic peak. 

 Guadeloupe, with Grande Terre and Desirade, would be a single island, 

 but not connected with Marie Galante and the Saintes, which would 

 remain isolated islands. 



Martinique would be doubled in area by an increased land to the 

 north from the emergence of a submerged calcareous peninsula extend- 

 ing in that direction, producing conditions exactly analogous to those 

 now in Guadeloupe. 



The numerous Grenadine islands would be united with Grenada in a 

 long volcanic ridge resembling the Saint Christopher ridge. Montserrat, 

 Dominica, and Saint Lucia, however, would continuelin their isolation as 

 simple constructional volcanic piles separated from the other islands. 



A little island like Barbados would appear nearly 100 miles north of 

 the latter, and the little rock of Aves would be considerably increased. 



The consolidation of islands, it will be noted, would nearly all occur at 

 the northern end of the chain. To the southward of Antigua a change of 

 100 fathoms would make no material difference in the present land areas 

 except to unite the hundreds of little headlands constituting the Grena- 

 dines. 



The 500-fa thorn line (3,000 feet) collects the islands into four groups : 

 (1) Saint Croix ; (2) all the other islands and banks southward to Domin- 

 ica, inclusive ; (3) the island and banks of Martinique, and (4) Saint 

 Lucia, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines. 



An elevation of 1,000 fathoms (6,000 feet) would connect all of the 

 AVindward islands as a long peninsula extending out from South Amer- 

 ica, but a strait would still exist between this peninsula and the Virgin 



