Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/197



my voyage last year (October 1810) from Antigua to England the packet touched at Montserrat, and my curiosity having been excited by the accounts I received of a place in the island called “ The sulphur,” and which, from the descriptions of several persons, I conceived might be the crater of an inconsiderable volcano, I determined to avail myself of the stay of the packet to visit that place.

The island of Montserrat, so called by the Spaniards from a fancied resemblance to the celebrated mountain of Catalonia, is every where extremely rugged and mountainous, and the only roads, except in one direction, are narrow bridle paths winding through the recesses of the mountains; there is hardly a possibility of using wheeled carriages, and the produce of the estates is brought to the place of shipment on the backs of mules. Accompanied by a friend, I accordingly set out on horseback from the town of Plymouth, which is situated at the foot of the mountains on the sea shore. We proceeded by a circuitous and steep route about six miles, gradually ascending the mountain, which consisted entirely of an uniform porphyritic rock, broken every where into fragments and large blocks,