426 E. O. HOVEY WALLIBU AND RABAKA GORGES 



broad, of bombs and other bowlders concentrated by the waves after they 

 had washed out and carried away the finer ash that had been brought 

 down by the torrents and floods of the river. Southward across the broad 

 month of the old Eabaka the new shoreline receded slowly, hut south of 

 the river the coast was only slightly altered, though there was much fresh 

 ash along the beach as far as Colonarie point and diminishing quantity 

 south of there, varying with the amount of ash deposited upon the land. 

 Colonarie point was nearly at the southern limit on the windward side of 

 the damaging fall of ash. This limit ran irregularly in a general north- 

 westerly direction across the island to and along the ridge bounding the 

 Richmond valley on the southwest. South of this line the new ash did 

 not seriously injure the vegetation, and therefore it remained practically 

 where it fell, and has been washed but slowly to the sea. 



North of the mouth of the Eabaka the conditions have been entirely 

 different. The windward slopes of the Soufriere as far as Chibarabu 

 point, 6 kilometers from the Eabaka, received a devastating quantity of 

 ash, most of which, however, fell on the catchment basin of the Eabaka. 

 The disposition of this has been discussed already. North and east of 

 this basin the mountain slopes allowed the new ash to be washed rapidly 

 to the sea through several small stream channels, but returning vegetation 

 seems practically to have stopped this process. The gentle slopes of the 

 cultivated plantations have retained practically all of the new material 

 that was deposited on them. 



From Colonarie point, then, northward at least as far as Sandy bay, 

 just north of Chibarabu point, but particularly from the mouth of the 

 Eabaka northward, vast quantities of new and some old ash have been 

 distributed along the coast by the ocean currents, widening the beach by 

 a few to many meters. It seems likely, however, that the waves and cur- 

 rents will continue their work till the preemption coastline has been rees- 

 tablished. 



