WEST INDIES. 263 



me to colour any part of the coast, except 60 miles from Port 

 de Plata westward, which seems regularly fringed : many other 

 parts, however, of the coast are probably fringed, especially 

 towards the eastern end of the island. — Puerto Rico: consider- 

 able portions of the southern, western, and eastern coasts, and 

 some parts of the northern coast, appear in the charts to be 

 fringed ; coloured red. Some miles in length of the southern 

 side of the Island of St. Thomas is fringed ; most of the Virgin 

 Gorda Islands, as I am informed by Sir E. Schoinburgk, are 

 fringed ; the shores of Anegada, as well as the bank on which 

 it stands, are likewise fringed ; these islands have been coloured 

 red. The greater part of the southern side of Santa Cruz 

 appears in the Danish survey to be fringed (see also Professor 

 Hovey's account of this island, in Silliman's Journal, vol. 

 xxxv. p. 74) ; the reefs extend along shore for a considerable 

 space, and project rather more than a mile ; the depth within 

 the reef is three fathoms ; coloured red. — The Antilles, as re- 

 marked by Von Buch (Descrip. lies Canaries, p. 494), may 

 be divided into two linear groups, the western row being vol- 

 canic, and the eastern of modern calcareous origin ; my infor- 

 mation is very defective on the whole group. Of the eastern 

 islands, Barbuda and the western coasts of Antigua and 

 Mariagalante appear to be fringed ; this is also the case with 

 Barbadoes, as I have been informed by a resident ; these 

 islands are coloured red. On the shores of the western An- 

 tilles, of volcanic origin, very few coral-reefs appear to exist. 

 The island of Martinique, of which there are beautifully exe- 

 cuted French charts on a very large scale, alone presents any 

 appearance worthy of special notice. The south-western, 

 southern, and eastern coasts, together forming about half 

 the circumference of the island, are skirted by very irregular 

 banks, projecting generally rather less than a mile from the 

 shore, and lying from two to five fathoms submerged. In 

 front of almost every valley, they are breached by narrow, 

 crooked, steep-sided passages. The French engineers ascer- 



