The Colombian Archipelago, or West Indian Islands, which may be regarded as the wreck of a submerged part of the continent of South and Central America, consists of three distinct groups, namely, the Lesser Antillas or Caribbean Islands, the Greater Antillas, and the Bahama or Lucay Islands. Some of the Lesser Antillas are flat, but their general character is bold, with a single mountain or group of mountains in the centre, which slopes to the sea all around, more precipitously on the eastern side, which is exposed to the force of the Atlantic current. Trinidad is the most southerly of a line of magnificent islands, which form a semi-circle, enclosing the Caribbean Sea, with its convexity facing the east. The row is single to the island of Gaudeloupe, where it splits into two chains, known as the Windward and Leeward Islands. Trinidad, Tobago, St. Lucia, and Dominica are particularly mountainous, and the mountains are cut by deep narrow ravines, or gullies, covered by ancient forests. The volcanic islands, which are mostly in the single part of the chain, have conical mountains bristled with rocks of a still more rugged form; but almost all the islands of the Lesser Antillas have a large portion of excellent vegetable soil in a high state of cultivation. Most of them are surrounded by coral reefs, which render navigation dangerous, and there is little intercourse between these islands, and still less with the Greater Antillas, on account of the prevailing winds and currents, which make it difficult to return. The Lesser Antillas terminate with the group of the Virgin Islands, which are small and flat, some only a few feet above the sea, and most of them are mere coral rocks. The four islands which form the group of the Greater Antillas are the largest and finest in the Archipelago. Porto Rico, Haiti or San Domingo, and Jamaica, separated from the Virgin Islands by a narrow channel, lie in a line parallel to the coast-chain of Venezuela, from east to west; while Cuba, by a serpentine bend, separates the Caribbean Sea, or Sea of the Antillas, from the Gulf of Mexico. Porto Rico is 90 miles long and 36 broad, with wooded mountains passing through its centre nearly from east to west, which furnish abundance of water. There are extensive savannahs in the interior, and very rich soil on the northern coast, but the climate near the sea is unhealthy. Haiti or San Domingo, 340 miles long and 132 broad, has a chain of mountains in its centre, extending from east to west like all the mountains in the Greater Antillas, the highest point of which is 9000 feet above the sea. A branch diverges from the main stem to Cape Tiburon, so that Haiti contains a great proportion of high land. The mountains are susceptible of cultivation nearly to the summit, and are clothed with undisturbed tropical forests. The extensive plains are well watered, and the soil, though not deep, is productive.