272 R. T. HILL — PELE AND THE WINDWARD ARCHIPELAGO 



D'Enfer, on the north coast of Grande Terre, Guadeloupe, where the 

 surf of the ocean is undermining cliffs 200 feet in height (see plate 47). 



The eastern border of Martinique is cut into hundreds of shallow bays 

 and inlets by the strong action of the heavy surf, which everywhere on 

 that side prevents free navigation, and the contour and topography of 

 the adjacent sea border shows that this land once extended to the outer 

 margin of the islands which now border it. 



On the leeward shore of the islands similar work is going on all the 

 time, although the tremendous biting effect of the surf is not so great on 

 the leeward shore. It is, nevertheless, sufficient to produce a well de- 

 fined horizontal indentation into the shore, which results in the under- 

 mining of the cliffs. The lee shore of all the islands exhibits the result 

 of this process. 



If islets, such as these constituted by the Barbadian rocks, can be thus 

 destroyed, it is not unreasonable to assume that the same processes may . 

 reduce larger areas of land to low benches below sealevel,and if there is 

 no further elevation or addition to the masses of the islands now pro- 

 jecting above land these same processes can ultimately plane them all 

 down to a level below the surf and wave action of the sea. 



On the windward side of all the islands to a large degree and the lee 

 side to a smaller one there are low shallow benches and banks, which 

 have clearly been made by this process. It is not unreasonable to be- 

 lieve that great areas of submarine banks without any land surface, like 

 those of the Saba banks or the great banks which extend as a submarine 

 shoulder for 100 miles north and east of Martinique, may have once 

 been land which has entirely disappeared largely by this process of 

 cutting and planing by the sea. 



In fact, if no other process were in operation than this one of de- 

 structive surf planation, it alone would account for the dissection of the 

 various archipelagoes of the Windward group arising from a common 

 bank, such as the Virgin islands, the Grenadines, Guadeloupe, and 

 Antigua. 



That the planation has continued for a long time past as an important 

 factor in producing the present configuration of many islands is directly 

 shown by several examples. All the islands of the Grande Terre, 

 Guadeloupe bank, represent an old volcano pile larger than the present 

 island of Martinique, which was planed down to and below sealevel in 

 Tertiary time, veneered with organic material, and afterward elevated to 

 its present position. Such, probably, has been the case with Barbuda, 

 Anguilla, and many other of the small calcareous islands. He who 

 indulges in speculation would find no difficulty in conceiving that the 

 great Saba bank owes its present configuration to the same causes, aided 



