. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. CHAPTER XIV. THE LESSER NDER the general name of the Lesser Antilles are usually comprised all the islands of the Caribbean Sea except Cuba, Jamaica, San Domingo (Haiti), and Puerto Pico. But those fringing the Vene- zuelan coast, including Trinidad and the neighbouring Tobago, are too closely connected with the South American mainland, both in their position, relief, and geological constitution, to be separated from that conti- nent in a general geographical treatise. In fiict, the term Antilles should be restricted to the chain of isl
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. CHAPTER XIV. THE LESSER NDER the general name of the Lesser Antilles are usually comprised all the islands of the Caribbean Sea except Cuba, Jamaica, San Domingo (Haiti), and Puerto Pico. But those fringing the Vene- zuelan coast, including Trinidad and the neighbouring Tobago, are too closely connected with the South American mainland, both in their position, relief, and geological constitution, to be separated from that conti- nent in a general geographical treatise. In fiict, the term Antilles should be restricted to the chain of islands which develops a graceful curve from north to south, beginning at Sombrero and terminating at Grenada and Barbados. It should also, strictlj^ speaking, include the Bird Islets (Aves), situated in the Caribbean Sea within the space enclosed by the rampart of islands washed on the east by the Atlantic, but on a chain of parallel banks which an upheaval of the marine bed would transform to a second group of Lesser Antilles. The English administration, misunderstanding the reports of navigators, usually apply the expression " Leeward Islands " to the northern section of the Lesser Antilles as far south as Dominica, and inclusive of the Virgin group. The southern section from Martinique to Trinidad is in the same way grouped under the designation of the "Windward ; But these expressions are inaccurate and misleading, for all the islands standing on the outer margin of the Caribbean Sea are alike exposed to the action of the trade winds. Hence the terras, windward and leeward, have no geographical meaning or any value except from the stand- point of the British colonial administration. Even in this sense it is confusing, for despite the official nomenclature, the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique are members of the so-called "Leeward" group. Altogether the Lesser Antilles, from Sombrero to Grenada with Barbados but without the Aves
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