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Windward Islands Pounder's Beach on the Windward Coast of the Island Between Haula and Laie, Oahu, Hawaii, USA Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com The islands of the Windward Islands Colony trend in a generally southward direction from the French island of Guadeloupe. Martinique, also French, separates Dominica, the northernmost island of the colony, from the others. Like the inner chain of the Leeward Islands Colony the islands of the Windward Islands Colony are all of volcanic origin, but, as on Montserrat and the Basse Terre section of Guadeloupe, erosion has destroyed the symmetry of most of the cones. The characteristic land forms are deeply ravined piles of weathered basalt and volcanic tuffs with many old craters, and there is evidence of volcanic activity in sulphur vents (soufrières) and hot springs. Dominica (305 sq. mi.) is the largest British island in the Lesser Antilles and in Morne Diablotin (5204 ft.) rises to the highest elevation in the whole chain. Boiling Lake, a sulphur geyser in the southern part, still shows intermittent activity, and there was an eruption of fine ash in this region in 1880. So rugged is the central mountain mass that no road crosses the island. St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada form an unbroken line of British possessions south of Martinique. Over the greater part of St. Lucia (223 sq. mi.) the volcanic materials have been eroded into mature forms with broad open valleys and show no trace of the original cones. in the center of the western slope of the main north-south range, however, a number of younger volcanic forms still retain their conical shapes. A considerable area at the southwest end of the island is covered by a mud flow that slopes gently to the sea. The highest point on the island, Morne Gimie, rises to 3145 feet. Gros Piton (2619 feet) and Petit Piton (2481 feet), two remarkably steep, sharp-pointed peaks rising sheer from the sea on the west coast, are believed to be volcanic plugs. At the northern end of St. Vincent (150 sq. mi.) the enormous cone of Soufrière rises to 4048 feet. After lying dormant for 90 years (there was a disastrous eruption in 1812), this volcano erupted in 1902, synchronously with the eruption of Mt. Pelée in Martinique, devastating the whole northern part of the island and killing some 2000 people. The southern half of St. Vincent is in an advanced stage of dissection, although more youthful in form than St. Lucia. Here, from a main north-south axial range numerous rough spurs run down to the sea. On the west side of the range these spurs are steep and sharp-crested, with deep, narrow gorges between them; but on the cast they are more gently sloping, and the valleys are wider and flatter and in a number of cases open into fairly extensive coastal plains. The Grenadines form a chain of about 100 small islands and rocks extending for a distance of 60 miles between St. Vincent and Grenada. The two largest are Carriacou (about 13 sq. mi.), near the southern end of the chain, and Bequia (about 9 sq. mi.), at the northern end. All of them are very much worn-down volcanic residuals (the highest elevations are Union Island, near the center of the chain, 1010 feet; Carriacou, 980; Bequia, 880). Grenada (133 sq. mi.) consists of a main north-south axial range of maturely dissected volcanic rocks extended westward at its southern end by a series of subdued volcanic hills. The island has the appearance of being tilted down from northwest to southeast, with steep slopes much cliffed and little embayed on the northwest side and long, gentle, deeply embayed slopes on the southeast. Most of the embayments on both sides are partially delta-filled. The island is the lowest in the Windward Islands group (highest elevation 2749 feet). At present there seems to be no evidence of volcanic activity. CLIMATE Rainfall records at various points on all the islands show, however, that the greatest variation in the amount of rainfall is produced by differences in elevation. On Dominica, for example, the annual mean increases from 77.64 inches at Roseau to 105 inches at St. Aroment (elevation 360 feet), only two miles to the northeast, and to 185 inches at Shawford (elevation 500 feet) a mile farther in the same direction. All the islands have numerous streams, most of which carry water even during the driest months, and such descriptions as are available indicate that, outside the cultivated sections, all are heavily forested. Home