ST. JOHN


 Generally speaking the West Indian islands are angular and
 mountainous, having been formed in most instances through vol-
 canic or orogenic means. Calcareous rocks along with magmatic for-
 mations have often resulted in erosional deposits and fertile soils.
 The latter is generally true through most of the islands and is es-
 pecially true of the larger groups. Most of the islands, therefore,
 exhibit prolific vegetation, and, under more favored conditions,
 true rainforest environments prevail.
 Turning now to the specific question of the Virgin Islands we
 find that they lie approximately 1,000 miles southeast of Miami,
 Florida. Important islands in the group are St. John, St. Thomas,
 St. Croix, Tortola, Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda and Anegada.
 Although Anegada has an elevation of no more than 30 feet, the
 other major islands of the group rise as high as 1,780 feet above sea
 level.
 When viewed on a map, the islands of the Virgin group appear
 to be a structural part of the Lesser Antilles. In fact, they have
 been treated in that fashion on a historical and archaeological
 basis. Geographically and geologically, however, the Virgin Islands
 are an integral portion of the Puerto Rico platform and Antillean
 Geanticline. More will be said concerning the geology of this
 area, however, it will suffice to state here that the platform or base-
 ment rocks for this Virgin Island extension are volcanic with later
 thin fossil zones and diorite instrusives. The bank is roughly 100
 miles long on an east-west axis and 30 to 40 miles wide on the
 north-south axis. For the most part, the bank is covered by no
 more than 165 feet of water, and emerging above the sea on this
 bank are nearly 100 islands and cays-peaks of the submerged
 eastern terminus of a great east-west chain of mountains more ap-
 parent and pronounced in Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, etc. The
 Anegada Passage is the spectacular geomorphic feature which
 clearly terminates, southeast of the Virgin Bank, the Antillean
 mountain chain. This passage is a deeply submerged fault trough
 which drops to 7,120 feet in the main trench, while that flank of
 the trough just north of St. Croix descends at a 30 degree angle
 to 14,130 feet.
 At the present time, the Virgin Islands are governed by Great
Britain and the United States. The boundary between these
two territorial areas runs between Little Tobago Island and Hans