WEST INDIAN VOLCANOS. 
407 
those which appear to be the work of madrepores and other 
zoophytes. The latter, according to M. Moreau de Jonnes, 
seem to lie on shoals of a volcanic nature. Those moun- 
tains, which present traces of the action of lire more or less 
recent, and some of which reach nearly nine hundred toises 
of elevation, are all situated on the western skirt of the 
smaller West India Islands.* Each island is not the effect 
of one single keaving-up : most of them appear to consist 
of isolated masses which have been progressively united 
together. The matter has not been emitted from one crater, 
but from several; so that a single island of small extent 
contains a whole system of volcanos, regions purely basaltic, 
and others covered with recent lavas. The volcanos still 
burning are those of St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe. 
The first threw out lava in 1718 and 1812 ; in the second 
there is a continual formation of sulphur by the conden- 
sation of vapours, which issue from the crevices of an 
ancient crater. The last eruption of the volcano of Guade- 
loupe took place in 1797. The Solfatara of St. Christopher’s 
was still burning in 1(392. At Martinique, Vauclin, Mon- 
tague Pelee, and the crater surrounded by tbo five Paps of 
Carbet, must be considered as three extinguished volcanos. 
The effecls of thunder have been often confounded in that 
place with subterranean fire. JN T o good observation has con- 
firmed the supposed eruption of the 22nd of January, 
calcareous formations. M. Cortes divides the West India Islands into, 
1st, those containing at once primitive, secondary, and volcanic for- 
mations, like the greater islands ; 2nd, those entirely calcareous, (or at 
least so considered) as Mariegalante and Curafoa; 3rd, those at once 
volcanic and calcareous, as Antigua, St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, and 
St. Thomas ; 4th, those which have volcanic rocks only, as St. Vincent, 
St. Lucia, and St. Eustache. 
* Journal dcs Mines, tom. iii. p. 59. In order to exhibit in one point 
of view the whole system of the volcanos of the smaller West India 
Islands, I will here trace the direction of the islands from south to 
north. — Grenada, an ancient crater, filled with water; boiling springs; 
basalts between St. George and Goave. — St. Vincent, a burning volcano. 
— St. Lucia, a very active solfatara, named Ouidibou, two or three 
hundred toises high ; jets of hot water, by which small basins are peri- 
odically filled. — Martinique, three great extinguished volcanos; Vauclin, 
the Paps of Carbet, which are perhaps the most elevated summits of the 
smaller islands, and Montague Pelee, (The Height of this last mountain 
Is probably 800 toises; according to Leblond it is 670 toises; according 
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