V. Some Remarks upon the Structure of Barbadoes, as connected with Specimens of its Rocks.

Abstract

It is not my intention to offer to the Society a mineralogical description of those West Indian islands from which I have brought specimens; for, independently of the peculiar difficulties attending close and accurate researches of this nature in such a climate, my knowledge of the subject is too limited, and I am too little conversant with such descriptions to venture upon any but what the specimens themselves would seem to call for, in order to explain the circumstances under which they were collected. As however my friend Mr. Aikin has requested me to copy the few and imperfect notes which I have taken upon the subject, I beg leave to present them to the Society, together with the specimens, trusting that they will be considered as little else than, their accompanying catalogue. I would beg permission to state that Barbadoes, which furnished the specimens under notice, is an island totally unlike those immediately near it, both in appearance and in structure, as will be evident, when I lay before the Society specimens of the rocks of St. Vincent and St. Lucie in my possession. The land is seen to rise in a gentle swell from the coast towards the middle of the island, excepting in a small district hereafter to be noticed; its highest hills have no great elevation, probably not exceeding eight or nine hundred feet, and their general direction is I think nearly north-west and south-east: its shores have no bold promontories nor rocky headlands, excepting in