About equidistant from Antigua and Nevis, the islands nearest to it, Montserrat, as its name implies, (a name given by its discoverer Columbus,) is truly a mountainous island. No island in these seas is bolder in its general aspect, more picturesque, and I think I may add without exaggeration, more beautiful in the detail of its scenery,-indeed, one might be tempted to say, considering its fortunes, that it has the fatal gift of beauty.

Never accurately surveyed, it is conjectured to be 34 miles in circuit, about 12 miles in length and 7 or 8 in width, and to comprise about 48 square miles, or 35,000 acres, of which at least two thirds are steep declivities, uncultivated and covered with wood; a circumstance to which, with its varied mountain forms, a great deal of its beauty is owing.

In structure it appears to be entirely volcanic, and composed of igneous crystalline rocks, of clays, probably derived from the decomposition of these rocks, and of tufas, conglomerates and volcanic ashes; the latter often exhibiting a stratified arrangement.

Two spots are pointed out as craters of eruption; one the Soufriere, about 800 feet above the level of the sea; the other a hollow, now a lake of clear water, at the summit of one of the highest mountains, described as about one hundred yards, round and overflowing after heavy rains.