Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/543

Rh W E S T INDIES 511 Neiba, and Yuna in Hayti. All have, necessarily, short courses, and none of them are of much importance. The population is almost entirely of European, Negro, or East-Asiatic origin. The Negroes far outnumber the others, but the Asiatics are rapidly increasing in numbers. As in most tropical countries where considerable heights are met with and here over 15,500 square miles lie at an elevation of more than 1500 feet above sea-level the climate of the West Indies (in so far at least as heat and cold are concerned) varies at different altitudes, and on the higher parts of many of the islands a marked degree of coolness may generally be found. With the exception of part of the Bahamas, all the islands lie between the isotherms of 77 J and 82 F. The extreme heat, however, is greatly tempered by the sea breezes, and by long, cool, refreshing nights. Frost is occasionally formed in the cold season when hail falls, but snow is unknown. The seasons may be divided as follows. The short wet season, or spring, begins in April and lasts from two to six weeks, and is succeeded by the short dry season, when the thermometer remains almost stationary at about 80 F. In July the heat increases to an extent well nigh unbear able, and thunder is heard to rumble in the distance. No change need now be looked for till after a period varying from the end of July to the beginning of October, when the great rainfall of the year commences, accompanied by those tremendous and destructive hurricanes, so intimately and truly associated with popular ideas regarding this region, on which the annual rainfall averages 63 inches an amount of precipitation calculated to represent a mass of water of 12,465,437,000,000 cubic feet. This season is locally known as the &quot;hurricane months.&quot; Out of a total of 355 hurricanes, or, more properly, cyclones, recorded during the last three hundred years, 42 have occurred in July, 96 in August, 80 in September, and 69 in October. These storms commence in the Atlantic and towards the east. For a day or two they follow a westerly course, inclining, at the same time, one or two points towards the north, the polar tendency becoming gradually more marked as the distance from the equator increases. When the hurricanes reach latitude 25 N., they curve to the north east, and almost invariably wheel round on arriving at the northern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, after which they follow the coast line of North America. Their rate of speed varies considerably, but may be said to average 300 miles per day among the islands. The usual signs of the approach of the cyclones are an ugly and threatening appearance of the weather, sharp and frequent puffs of wind increasing in force with each blast, accompanied with a long heavy swell and confused choppy sea, coming from the direction of the approaching storm. But the baro meter is the true guide, which should always be consulted when a cyclone is expected. If a sudden fall of the baro meter is observed, or even if a marked irregularity of its diurnal variations takes place, a storm may be confidently looked for. In some of these hurricanes the barometer has been found to stand 2 inches lower in the centre of the disturbance than it did outside the limits of the storm field. December marks the commencement of the long dry season, which, accompanied by fresh winds and occasional hail showers, lasts till April. The average temperature of the air at Barbados, which may be taken as a favourable average, is, throughout the year, 80 F. in the forenoon, and about 82 in the afternoon. The maxi mum is 87, and the minimum 75. The geological features of the West Indies are interesting. A calcareous formation, often assuming the shape of marbles, is most common, and indeed preponderates above all the other rocks to a remarkable degree. The Bahamas, which are low, are composed wholly of limestone formed from coral and shells, crushed into a concretionary mass, hard on the surface, but soft where not exposed to atmospheric action, full of holes and indentations, and disposed in nearly level beds. The lower parts of the Antilles present a like forma tion where the land does not rise above 230 feet. Cuba shows two distinct compact limestones, one a clayey sand stone and the other a gypsum. These are confined to the central and western parts of the island, which has also syenitic rocks, with some serpentine from which petroleum is obtained, Four-fifths of Jamaica consists of limestone overlying granite and other igneous rocks. Hayti has much metamorphic strata, generally greatly uptilted, and often exhibiting marked folding. These rocks appear to have been limestones, shales, sandstones, and conglomer ates. Auriferous quartz veins occur in slates, where these are found near eruptive masses; there is also some syenite, and both active and extinct craters are upon this island. The western Antilles are entirely of volcanic origin, and coral reefs occur along their shores ; coral reefs are also presented on the coasts of many of the other islands, but are most irregular in their mode of occurrence, sometimes forming complete belts surrounding the land on all sides, but oftener appearing in the shape of unconnected masses. The fossils of the West Indies are important, as from many of them clear evidence is obtained to show that at no very remote geological period the islands formed part of the adjoining continents. The remains of the megatherium, mylodon, and cabylara, essentially South- American, are also found in North America, but only along the seaboards of Georgia and Carolina. As these are also found in some of the West India islands, as well as in South America, it is thus perfectly clear that at one time the archipelago formed a land passage between the two great divisions of the New World. These remains have also been found in conjunction with the fossil human skeletons of Guadeloupe and the rude weapons associated with them. We may therefore fairly conclude that in Pleistocene times the West Indies formed the connecting link between the two Americas. The occurrence of tree stumps in situ several feet below high-water mark also points to a comparatively late sinking of the land in some areas. The mineral wealth of the islands is not remarkable. Gold, silver, iron, copper, tin, platinum, lead, coal of a poor quality, cobalt, mercury, arsenic, antimony, manganese, and rock salt either have been or are worked. Of late years asphalt has been worked to considerable advantage among the pitch lakes of Trinidad. Opal and chalcedony are the principal precious stones. The fauna of the region is Neotropical, belonging to that region which includes South and part of Central America, although great numbers of birds from the North- American portion of the Holarctic realm migrate to the islands. The resident birds, however, eighteen genera of which are certainly Neotropical, show beyond doubt to which faunal region the islands properly belong. Mammals are, as in most island groups, rare. The agouti abounds, and wild pigs and dogs are sufficiently numerous to afford good sport to the hunter, as well as smaller game, in the shape of armadillos, opossums, musk-rats, and raccoons. The non-migrating birds include trogons, sugar- birds, chatterers, and many parrots and humming birds. Waterfowl and various kinds of pigeons are in abundance. Reptiles are numerous : snakes both the boa and adder are innumerable, while lizards, scorpions, tarantulas, and centipedes are everywhere. Insects are in great numbers, and are often very annoying. Among domestic animals mules are largely reared, and where the country affords suitable pasture and forage cattle-breeding is extensively engaged in. Much attention is not bestowed