38 



Senegambia) correspond to the entering angles 

 (the gulf of Guinea and the sea of the West 

 Indies), we are led to think, that the latter sea 

 owes if s formation to the action of currents, 

 flowing, like the current of rotation now exist- 

 ing, from East to West ; and which have given 

 the southern coast of Porto-Rico, St. Domingo, 

 and the Island of Cuba *, so uniform a configu- 

 ration. This supposition, not improbable, of an 

 oceanic irruption, has been the source of two 

 other hypotheses on the origin of the Smaller 

 West India islands. Some geologists admit, 

 that the uninterrupted chain of islands from 

 Trinidad to Florida exhibits the remains of an 

 ancient chain of mountains. They join the 

 chain sometimes to the granite of French Gui- 

 ana, sometimes to the calareous mountains of 

 Pari. Others, struck with the difference of 

 geognostical constitution between the primitive 

 mountains of the Greater West India islands 

 and the volcanic cones of the Less, consider 

 these last as having risen from the bottom of 

 the sea. 



If we recollect, that volcanic swellings, when 

 they take place through elongated crevices, 

 affect most commonly a straight direction, we 

 shall find it difficult to judge from the disposi- 

 tion of the craters alone, whether the. volcanoes 



* Between Cape Mayzi and Cape Cruz. 



