A TRIP TO TRINIDAD. 



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* me more probable that those enormous masses were 

 founded upon some primitive or volcanic rock, to 

 which they were attached at a small depth. The 

 limestone formation of Giiines, partly compact and 

 lithographic, and partly spongy, continued to Bata- 

 bano. It is very similar to the limestone formation 

 of the Jura, and if we may judge simply by the 

 external appearance, the Cayman islands are com- 

 posed of the same rock. If the mountains of the 

 Isle of Pines which present, according to the early 

 historians of the conquest, the pine and palm toge- 

 ther, are visible at a distance of twenty leagues, their 

 height must be more than 3,200 feet ; and I have been 

 assured that they are composed also of a limestone 

 similar to that of Giiines. r 

 From these facts, I expected jto find the same rock 

 ( jurassic) in the Jardinillos ; but I have only found, 

 on examining the cays, which ri&e usually five or six 

 inches above the surface of the water, a fragmentary 

 rock in which regular lumps of coral are cemented, 

 together with a quartz sand. . Sometimes the frag- 

 ments had a volume of one or two cubic feet, and 

 the grains of sand have so completely disappeared, 

 that one might believe that the lithophite polypus 

 had remained there in numerous layers. The mass 

 of this group of cays appeared to me to be a true 

 agglomerate limestone, quite analogous to the ter- 



