The Mountains of the West Indies. 71 
speedily finds a premature grave, but his successful bro- 
ther can tell a tale that may exonerate the vilified 
climate if he be minded to candour. 
A chain of mountains rises in Cuba, and traverses the 
island from west to east, where it is lost — apparently, 
however, to rise again in the islands to the east. It 
seems to us that, with the exception of one or two breaks 
which occur in the out-lying islands, one system of moun- 
tains runs throughout the West Indies, plunging as it 
were from the precipitous coast abruptly into, or from 
the lawn-like slope slowly gliding beneath the blue 
waters, to rise again in like manner and, clothed with 
perpetual verdure, trend upward some hundreds or thou- 
sands of feet, only to again disappear and reappear. 
It is, we believe, very generally considered by geolo- 
gists that the West Indian islands were at some prehis- 
toric period united with each other, and joined the 
American continent at both ends of the chain. What is 
now known as the Caribbean, would thus have been a 
large inland sea, even though considerably smaller than 
it at present is. Admitting this theory to be tenable, 
we come to the likelihood that what now constitute the 
" islands" were the topmost peaks and ridges of a chain 
of mountains thrown out from the greater chain which 
traverses the American continent from its north western 
shores to Cape Horn. Some stupendous convulsion of 
nature, far exceeding that which has recently occurred in 
Java, would sufficiently account for the change. Of the 
existing indications of former tremendous volcanic activ- 
ity, which are to be found in the islands, we will speak 
in the proper place. Meanwhile we will trace this 
broken mountain-chain through its many windings and 
