THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. x1v.— NOVEMBER, 1880. — No. 11. 
THE ISLAND OF DOMINICA. 
BY F. M. ENDLICH. 
P)OMNICK has. always been veiled in a halo of mystery. 
Vague rumors of “smoking mountains,” of springs flow- 
ing “liquid sulphur,” and of caverns of prodigious dimensions 
have invested it with more than ordinary interest. 
The island was discovered by Columbus on his second west- 
ward voyage in 1493. It belongs to the “ Windward Group,” 
the whole of which form a portion of a circle directly east of the 
Caribbean sea. Geographically Dominica is located about at N. 
lat. 15°, and 61° long. W. of Greenwich, and its climate, conse- 
quently, is subtropical. Withcut entering into details, which 
here would carry us beyond our limits, it may be said that the 
entire Windward Group belongs to one geological system. Gen- 
erally speaking we may regard these islands—excepting Antigua, 
Barbadoes and Trinidad—as the highest remaining portions of 
an extensive eruption, the age of which falls near or into the 
_ Eocene period. From their orographic character, as well as from 
their relative position, the temptation is great to considey them 
the projecting points of the eastern side of one huge, serrated 
crater-rim. Detailed observations are too meagre as yet, how- 
ever, to attempt the establishment of any such hypothesis. 
Lithologically speaking the erupted material shown on Dominica 
strikingly resembles that of the southern Wasatch range. Even 
in special arrangement of the trachytic series the analogy is 
remarkable, It is furthermore borne out, on this and other : 
islands, by the general contours of elevations, and by the simi- 
larity of the effects produced by extensive erosion. 
Rising abruptly from the sea, the shores of Dominica afford 
VOL. XIV.—No, XI. 49 
