SOUFEIERE, AND ON A VISIT TO MONTAGNE PELEE, IN 1902. 
357 
in smooth water along the leeward shore, much information can be obtained in this 
way. The sharp spurs running down from the main axis end as a rule in prominent 
headlands with high rocky cliffs which give good natural exposures of the geological 
structure. Between these promontories the streams debouch in little bays, which 
show a sandy or gravelly beach in their centre. A sail along the leeward shores in a 
small boat, which, keeps close to the land, is a very pleasant and instructive experience 
for the geologist. Each headland furnishes a clean cut geological section, while in 
crossing the bays magnificent views are obtained of deep valleys, steep sided, 
gloriously picturesque, cultivated below, but higher up clothed in tropical forest, and 
in the background lofty peaks with their summits veiled in mist. 
In many respects the investigation of the geological history and structure of the 
Antilles is one of the most fascinating branches of geological research. The evidence 
of repeated and prolonged eruptive activity, of great changes of level in compara¬ 
tively recent times, of profound alterations in the distribution of land and sea, of 
enormous erosion, and the accumulation of great detrital dejDosits and masses of 
organic limestones, have combined to excite the interest and awaken the enthusiasm 
of geologists. But so far as concerns the recent eruptions and the islands involved 
in them, there is no need to enter into a discussion of the many interesting and 
difficult problems of Caribbean geological history. 
St. Vincent, Martinique, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Grenada are almost entirely 
volcanic, and there is no reason to believe that their rocks are older than the Pleis¬ 
tocene. They are built up principally of tuffs and agglomerates, with a smaller pro¬ 
portion of lava flows—the preponderance of fragmental ejecta being typical of the 
grouj). The epocli of maximum volcanic activity has probably long since passed 
away, though there are records of eruptions in historic times in Martinique, St. 
Vincent, St. Lucia, and Dominica; and in Grenada there is a well-preserved crater 
with a lake—the Grand Etang. All tlie islands show abundant solfataric action ; 
most of them contain one or more “ Soufrieres ” emitting steam and sulphuretted 
hydrogen. 
In Guadeloupe and in Antigua there are fossiliferous dej^osits possibly of Miocene 
age interbedded in the volcanic tuffs, and it may be that eruptive activity in the 
Leeward Islands dates back to the Eocene. But in the Windward Islands the oldest 
fossiliferous beds are Pleistocene or recent. Bocks of this age occur at elevations of 
several hundred feet above the sea in Martinique, St. Lucia, and Grenada, and to 
whatever 2 )eriod the outbreak of volcanic activity is to Ije assigned, there can Idc no 
doubt that it has continued through the Pleistocene iq3 to the present day."^' 
* R. T. Hill, “The Geology of Jamaica,” ‘Bulletin of the Museum of Comjjarative Zoology at 
Harvard College, 1899,’ vol. 34 (Geological Series, vol. 4), p. 223. 
