The Mountains of the West Indies. 87 
must have been an arena for volcanic action such as is 
not now to be found in any part of the world. It may 
be and doubtless is a vast conception, but it is also a 
probable one, to picture to the mental vision a continent, 
the centre of which was encircled by a fiery zone of 
mountain peaks which were forever pouring into the 
surrounding ocean great floods of volcanic matter. In 
such a manner, what were immediately after the mighty 
convulsion nothing but the isolated peaks of the sub- 
merged chain, would by degrees build themselves into 
the present islands by the constant deposit of lava, which, 
though reaching the water in an incandescent state, 
would instantly solidify on conta6l with the cold ele- 
ment. In process of time, as the slow centuries 
rolled into their decades, this mighty furnace, the bare 
conception of which startles imagination, gradually 
cooled, its fires begun to be exhausted, and here and there 
only an isolated volcano remained, which became more 
and more quiescent, until the present condition of things 
was reached. Relieved at last from the intolerable pre- 
sence of the ever-devastating fire-storms, the rich vol- 
canic soil naturally broke forth into exuberant vegeta- 
tion. Well watered by innumerable springs, streams 
and rivers, and heated by the life-creating rays of the 
tropical sun, it did not require the lapse of many cen- 
turies to spread that vegetation over the land, from the 
sand-encircled shores to the loftiest peaks. 
As we have shown to be the case in many of the islands, 
volcanic a£tion has not entirely ceased, and sometimes 
the inhabitants are sorely exercised by the sudden qui- 
vering of the ground beneath their feet. As a general 
rule, these earthquakes are confined to the quivering ; 
