Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/88

 76 and its own comparatively small streams have but modified here and there the grand deposit. ”

Having been amply gratified with our visit to this singular place, which to the usual magnificence of the West Indian landscape, unites the striking peculiarity of the local scene, we re-embarked in our vessel, and stood along the coast on our return. On the way we landed, and visited the plantations of several gentlemen, who received us with hospitality, and made us more fully acquainted with the state of this island: a colony which may with truth be described as fortunate in its situation, fertile in its soil, and rich beyond measure in the productions of nature; presenting, in short, by a rare combination, all which can gratify the curiosity of the naturalist, or the cupidity of the planter; restrained in the development of its astonishing resources, only by the inadequacy of population, the tedious and ill-defined forms of Spanish justice, and the severe, though we may hope transient, pressure of the times.