302 Notice of Active and Extinct Volcanos. 



lends any countenance to the fables respecting the Atlantis, we 

 should rather be led to consider that they were more generally 

 among the means which nature employs for increasing the extent 

 of dry land, and for gradually converting an unprofitable tract of 

 ocean into an abode for the higher classes of animals." 



Volcanos of America. 



West Indian Archipelago. — The West Indian islands are 

 geologically divided into 



1. Primitive. 



2. Volcanic. 



3. Calcareous. 



4. Volcanic and calcareous, with organized remains. 



To the first class belong Trinidad, Cuba, St. Domingo, 

 Portorico, and in part Jamaica, which contains also transi- 

 tion, secondary, and tertiary rocks, and there are rocks sup- 

 posed to be volcanic at Black hill, between Lennox, Low 

 Layton and the sea. Trinidad is in fact an appendage of 

 the South American continent. 



The most remarkable circumstance in its geology is the 

 celebrated pitch lake, existing in the midst of a clayey soil : 

 it is three miles in circumference, firm in the wet season, but 

 almost fluid in the hottest weather. Probably its origin is 

 connected with volcanic action, especially as there is on the 

 eastern coast a pit which throws up asphaltum with explosions 

 of smoke and flames. A similar vent exists in the sea to the 

 west of the island. 



" Of the second class of islands, which consist exclusively of 

 volcanic rocks, the follwing is a summary, commencing with 

 the most southern. 



" 1 . Grenada, an extinct crater filled with water ; boiling 

 springs ; basalts between St. George and Goave. 



" 2. St. Vincent, an active volcano, called Le Souffrier, the 

 loftiest mountain in the chain which runs through the islands. It 

 first threw out lavas in 1718, but its most tremendous eruption 

 was in 1812, when there issued from the mountain so dreadful a 

 torrent of lava, and such clouds of ashes, as nearly covered the 

 island, and injured the soil in a manner which it has never yet re- 

 covered. The total ruin of the city of Caraccas preceded this 

 explosion by thirty-five days, and violent oscillations of the 

 ground were felt both in the islands, and on the coasts of Terra 

 Firma. 



" 3. St. Lucia contains a very active Solfatara, from twelve to 



