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we find only what belongs unquestionably to volcanoes, feldspar-lavas, dolerites, basaltes, agglomerated
scoriæ, tufas, and pumice stones. Among the limestone formations we must distinguish those, which are
essentially subordinate to volcanic tufas*, from those which appear to be the work of madrepores and
other zoophytes. The latter, according to Mr. Moreau de Jonnès, seem to lie on shoals of a volcanic
nature. Those mountains, which present traces of the action of fire more or less recent, and some of which
reach nearly nine hundred toises of elevation, are all situate on the western skirt of the Smaller West India
islands†. Each island
* We have noticed some of these above (vol. iii, p. 575), after Mr. von Buch, at Lancerota, and at
Fortaventura, in the System of the Canary Islands. Among the smaller islands of the West Indies,
the following islets are entirely calcareous, according to Mr. Cortes: Marigalante, la Desirad, the
Grand Terre of Guadaloupe, and the Grenadillas. According to the observations of this naturalist,
Curasoa and Bonaire (Buen Ayre) present only calcareous formations. Mr. Cortes divides the West
India islands into, 1st, those containing at once primitive, secondary, and volcanic formations, like
the greater islands; 2nd, those entirely calcareous, (or at least so considered) as Marigalante and
Curasoa; 3rd, those at once volcanic and calcareous, as Antigua, St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, and
St. Thomas; 4th, those which display volcanic rocks only, as St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and St. Eustatia.
† See the observations of Mr. Amie, in his Rapport sur l'Etat du Volcan de la Guadeloupe en 1797, p.
17.