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The Skeleteon Outline of Norman Island It was impossible for me to visit the other members of the Virgin group, as transportation among the islands is very defective; but the large-scale charts show that all the islands have embayed shore lines similar to that of St. Thomas. One of the most significant members is Norman Island, which stands five miles south of St. John and two miles back from the southeastern border of the great submarine bank; it measures three by two miles across and 440 feet in height. It is of skeleton outline, like the neighboring Peter Island, that is, its narrow axial ridge may be compared to a backbone, from which rib-like spurs stand out between well opened embayments; and this indicates rather strong subsidence after prolonged erosion. For had a small island like this one, on which the streams are short and weak, long been stationary, so that its embayments would occupy only such valleys as were eroded with respect to the lowered ocean level of the Glacial epochs, the bays could not possibly be so wide with respect to the inter-bay spurs as they are here. Moreover, during the greater part of the prolonged period of valley erosion that this island has manifestly suffered, it must have been protected from abrasion, presumably by a true bank-margin barrier reef; otherwise its relatively slender spurs could not possibly extend so far beyond its bay heads, as I have shown elsewhere with respect to certain skeleton islands south of Japan. Indeed, all the islands of the Virgin group--except the low eastern island of Anegada, which is composed of limestone--appear to have been exposed to erosion for a much longer time than St. Helena has been. While its valleys are narrow and steep-sided, theirs are broadly opened; and yet, in spite of their exposure to erosion for so long a time, their spur ends are but little cliffed. It is not permissible to explain the small development of cliffed headlands by the breadth of the adjoining bank, across which the ocean waves must have had to advance; for the cliffs show by their abruptness that, when abrasion was permitted, it acted vigorously, even though the ocean was then shallower than now. Moreover, Norman Island near the bank border does not appear to be much more cliffed than the islands near the bank center. It must be concluded, then, that the Virgin Islands, like the other members of the Lesser Antillean chain, were protected from abrasion during most of the period of their prolonged erosion; otherwise they should out-cliff St. Helena. The Subdued Island of Culebra The small island of Culebra, not far west of St. Thomas but formely a dependence of Porto Rico and hence still occupied by a Spanish-speaking population, reënforced the conclusions reached on St.Thomas. It is reduced to subdued forms, among which hardly a trace of its original form remains, except that its highest summits are presumably situated beneath the original island center. Its shore line is liberally embayed and slightly cliffed; a small fringing reef was seen at a bay mouth on the southern side; elsewhere the shore is exposed to wave attack. This island has extensive pasturages of Guinea grass, which support a large number of cattle in excellent condition. Home