226 The National Geographic Magazine 



braska and upon the sedimentary islands 

 of Alaska. Earthquakes were reported 

 from Asia to South America ; red sun- 

 sets seen in distant lands ; floating bodies 

 and debris picked up far from the scene 

 of the disaster. Even recently it has 

 been reported that the surface of Penn- 

 sylvania had caved in since the disaster, 

 and that the enthusiastic crank who dis- 

 covered this fact was coming to Wash- 

 ington to see if the national capital had 

 not suffered a similar subsidence. For- 

 tunately we found that most of these 

 reports were founded upon imagination 

 or over-enthusiasm, and upon their face 



are as apparently incredible as were the 

 reports of two floating islands inhabited 

 by hordes of monkeys and green parrots 

 reported to have been seen on the Gulf 

 by the facetious editor of a Washington 

 paper. 



It will be impossible for me in the 

 accompanying paper to take up each 

 rumor and dissect it specifically ; but I 

 shall endeavor to present ever}- fact 

 which has come under my observation 

 or been recorded by me from the lips of 

 authentic witnesses, leaving to the end 

 the presentation of deductions concern- 

 ing the immediate cause of the disaster. 



GENERAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS 



In order to fully understand tne catas- 

 trophe it will be necessary to present a 

 brief review of the geography and geol- 

 ogy of the region. 



Across the throat of the Caribbean 

 extends a chain of islands (the Carib- 

 bees) , which are really smouldering fur- 

 naces, with fires banked up, ever ready 

 to break forth at some unexpected and 

 inopportune moment. This group; com- 

 mencing with Saba on the north, near 

 our own Porto Rico, and ending with 

 Grenada on the south, near Trinidad, 

 consists of ancient ash (lapilli) heaps, 

 piled up in times past by volcanic action. 

 These old ash heaps have weathered 

 into fertile soil, which, bathed by an 

 undue share of moisture, has become 

 covered with ripe growths of damp and 

 mouldering vegetation. This same soil 

 produces all the richest vegetable pro- 

 ducts of the Tropics. 



In three previous papers I have given 

 descriptions and classifications of the 

 geologic, geographic, and political con- 

 ditions of the West Indies. In the first 

 of these, "The Geology and Physical 

 Geography ; stud}' of a type of Antillean 

 development based upon surveys made 

 for Alexander Agassiz," * I endeavored 



to give every fact concerning the com- 

 plicated geological structure of the many 

 types of islands, together with the more 

 or less complicated physiographic his- 

 tory of how they are made and the 

 changes which they have undergone. 

 In the second work, " Cuba and Porto 

 Rico, with the Other Islands of the West 

 Indies," * a popular geographic story of 

 the islands, their resources and their peo- 

 ple, was presented. The third article, 

 entitled ' ' The Broken Necklace, ' ' in the 

 Century Magazine for April, 1901, en- 

 deavors to relate the unhappy conditions 

 which have brought the islands into a 

 state of economic ruin. 



To those who first look at the map 

 and have not considered their minute 

 geology, the Lesser Antilles appear as 

 the members of a kindred archipelago. 

 The Virgin Islands at the north are 

 Antillean, while all south of Grenada 

 are South American in natural relations. 

 Even after detaching their termini the 

 remaining islands of the archipelago 

 lying between the Anegada Passage 

 and Tobago, constituting the Windward 

 group, present almost as complicated 

 composition. Some of the northern 

 islands, such as Santa Cruz and St Bar- 



* Bulletin Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Harvard College, parts v and vi. Sept., 1S99. 



*The Century Company, New York, 1S9S. 

 second edition, 1900. 



