37 



chapter, to take a rapid view of this Mediterra- 

 nean Archipelago. The volcanic islands form 

 one fifth of that great arch extending from the 

 coast of Paria to the peninsula of Florida. 

 Running from South to North, they close this 

 interior sea on the eastern side, while . the 

 Greater West India islands appear like the 

 remains of a group of primitive mountains, the 

 summit of which seems to have been between 

 Cape Abacou, Point Morant, and the Copper 

 Mountains, at that spot, where the islands of 

 St. Domingo, Cuba, and Jamaica, are nearest to 

 each other. Considering the basin of the At- 

 lantic as an immense valley *, which separates 

 the two continents, and where, from 20° South 

 to 30° North, the saliant angles (Brazil and 



* See my first geological sketch of Sooth America, pub- 

 lished by Mr. de la Metherie in the Journal de Vliysique, 

 vol. liii, p. 33. The coasts of the ancient continent, 

 between 5° and 10° North, have the same direction (from 

 S. E. to N. W.) as the coasts of America between 8° South 

 and 10° North. The direction of the coasts is, on ihe con- 

 trary, from S. W. to N. E. in America, between 30° and 

 72°; and in the ancient continent between 25° and 70°. 

 The valley is narrowest (300 leagues) between Cape St. 

 Roch and Sierra Leone. Proceeding toward the North 

 along the coasts of the New Continent, from it's pyramidal 

 extremity, or the Straits of Magellan, we imagine we recog. 

 nise the effects of an impulsion directed first toward the 

 North-East, then toward the North- West, and finally again 

 to the North.East. 



