The Mountains of the West Indies. 89 
Of course, this may have been a mere coincidence, it 
however attracted our attention, and the suspicion has 
been lately strengthened. The St. James's Gazette, 
London, of the 1st September, 1883, writes : — 
"The Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey reports 
that unusual waves appeared at San Francisco at one a.m. on 
Monday, increased later in the day, and were again noticeable on Tues- 
day. The time between the waves was forty minutes. Similar pheno- 
mena were observed after the earthquake of 1854 in Japan and of 1868 
in Peru ; hence the present wave is attributable to the occurrence in 
Java ; " 
and the St. Christopher Gazette, West Indies, dated 
the 8th of the same month, has the following striclly 
parallel paragraph : — 
" A strange phenomenon took place at St. Bart's on the afternoon of 
Monday, the 27th ultimo. The sea receded, and returned to a long 
distance on the land, which naturally created some alarm. Many of the 
buildings are close to the sea shore, so the excitement may easily be 
imagined. There were no shocks of earthquake as was at first 
supposed." 
The theory to which these incidents have given rise 
may be of no practical utility, but it is not so devoid of 
interest in itself as to prevent our placing it before 
our readers. 
On this subje6t of the mountains of the West Indies 
considerably more might be said ; but, unfortunately, 
the space at our disposal does not warrant our 
entering into it at greater length than we have. On 
a future occasion we may devote a few pages to 
descriptive sketches of those lovely islands, but for the 
present the arbitrary requirements of a magazine article 
necessitate our closing the present sketch ; and here, 
therefore, we will bid adieu to 
Those leafy islets on the ocean thrown 
Like studs of emerald on a silver zone. 
M 
