SOUFEIERE, AND ON A VISIT TO MONTAGNE PELEE, IN 1902. 
.371 
Coastal terraces of another type, only indirectly connected with the eroded rocky 
platforms already described, deserve also to be mentioned here. Although they cover 
no very extensive area, they are important, as on them stand many of the most 
important villages and towns, as, for example, Kingstown, Georgetown, and Barrualli. 
They consist of alluvial material which has been transported down the steep slopes 
behind the shore, partly as taluses and landslides, but chiefly by the rivulets and 
streamlets, which wash away the fine earth after heavy falls of rain. Their upper 
surfaces are by no means plane, but have always a definite slope towards the shore, 
and are often somewhat hummocky, uneven, and rounded, as they consist of 
coalescing fans of alluvium, each of which diverges from the streamlet which has 
deposited it. The rain rills and small rivulets cannot carry the same load when they 
reach the gently sloping country at the foot of the hills as they did on the hill sides, 
and the material sinks and is laid down as sheets of gravel and fine earth. This 
deposit is often full of vegetable matter and the calcareous fragments of land shells. 
It does not seem to have gathered under the surface of a sheet of water, as it is never 
stratified, and contains no marine fossils. 
In that stretch of level ground which lies at the eastern base of the Soufriere, and 
stretches from Georgetown to Overland Village, we have the two types of terrace 
blended inextricably together (see Plate 21, fig. 1). Here are the remains of the 
old sea benches, much eroded, rounded off, and nearly effaced; yet that it is a rock 
platform can be proved in many places by the tuffs and lava-flows which are exposed 
in the stream sections and the coastal cliffs. The surface of these terraces is deeply 
weathered, and often covered over by alluvial fans laid down by water descending from 
the higher grounds. Shortly before we reached Georgetown heavy rains had fallen, 
and the fields of arrowroot behind the village had been covered by flows of mud which 
had descended the slopes above Grand Sable House. These mud streams had done 
great damage to the crops. They had entered the village and knocked down a 
hut, in which were two black people, who were buried in the falling ddbris, and were 
drowned. 
This country is partly a terrace of marine erosion, partly a terrace of accumulation. 
It forms the most extensive stretch of flat ground in the island, and is now covered 
with the ashes of the eruption and the sand and mud deposited on it by the rains. 
Formerly it was the pride of the island, as on it stood many fine estates, and it was 
inhabited by a large and contented population. Georgetown, which contains two 
fine churches and many good houses, was the centre of trade for the surrounding 
region. It is covered 2 feet deep with ashes; the gardens of the town and the 
fields around are desolate as a cinder heap, though here and there the vegetation 
is reasserting itself There is hardly an unbroken pane of glass in the whole town, 
as nearly all were shattered by falling stones, and when we were there a large 
part of the population was receiving relief from the funds at the disposal of the 
Governor. 
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