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St. Lucia, Degradation in the Presence of Forests Just as the calcareous sands of the St. Lucia beaches afford proof of the Postglacial aggradation of the circuminsular bank, so the alluvial deposits of the St. Lucia delta plains afford proof of the Postglacial degradation of adjoining valley-side slopes, although they had been reduced to maturely graded forms at an earlier date and although they must surely have long been forest-covered. For it is not to be supposed that the reduction of atmospheric temperature in the Glacial epochs sufficed to cause the temporary destruction of forests in the Lesser Antillean islands with any such completeness as the reduction of ocean temperature permitted the destruction of their encircling coral reefs. The fine alluvial material of which the delta plains are largely built up must therefore have been washed down from the side slopes adjoining the deltas and not only from the main valleys upstream from the deltas; that is, the wash must have been carried in part by every little wetweather side stream, the delta plain has a gradual lateral ascent into every side valley as well as a still more gradual headward ascent to its main-stream valley. The deltas may therefore be cited in support of the belief--in case any one doubts it--that the degradation of maturely graded, valley-side slopes proceeds in the presence of a forest cover, although doubtless at a much slower rate there than on slopes that are free from vegetation. Home