PYRITES OF THE CARRIBEAN

    In Which Ye  Author  Most Shamelessly Plugs

  A NATURAL HISTORY OF MUSTIQUE

The only place to read a Patrick O'Brian novel is lounging in the  mizzen top of a brig like Astrid. Nowhere else can a landsman keep track of what the man is talking about.  Running down the Windward Islands from English Harbor to Fort De France, I glanced up to spy that the nearest volcanic peak semed to be  greenly shivvering. So I put down The Nutmeg Of Consolation and swung from the mainyard garnet 'neath the futtocks to the quarterdeck ratlines to  go check the synthetic aperture radar--with a nightmare rig like Astrid's you want plenty of post-modern Nav gear, wired all Bristol-fashion.

Sure enough, the williwaw rustling the cane fields of Martinique's  Mont Pelee' was reaching across the sea-- it was time to shorten sail. From meteorology to ornithology and mineralogy, there's no avoiding natural history cruising the Caribbean. On land and under water , much of it is delightful ; but while  Captain Raul King of Bequia once declared " Nothing in this sea will harm you", you do need to know enough not to grab the fire coral , poke the sea urchins , or steer afoul of its underwater volcano.

With so much to oogle, the naturally curious visitor might well need  A Natural History Handbook to seek out, and sort out all the beautiful creatures, lovely corals, and sparking mineral veins. So I helped write one.

It focuses on a tight little Grenadine island, Mustique , wondrously rich in geology for its size, its hinterland swarming with  the Pyrites of the Caribbean ,as well as the chalcopyrites, sundry glitterati , many birds of bright plumage, and ants, plants and tortoises galore. There are few sycophants and  presently no elephants, it being deemed imprudent to replace the one Lord Glenconner seems to have misplaced on St.Lucia. 

Though phenomenally poor in mosquitoes, Mustique does have Wi Fi in
The Excellent Bar  of  Basil Charles OBE  > 

In which Music of several Sorts may be heard & a most delightful & edifying Book obtained !

Migration having transferred all creatures great and small between the Greater and Lesser Antilles,   A Natural History of Mustique  is indispensable ashore on all islands Leeward and Windward

It is among the best illustrated  Caribbean natural history books. Its 360 color photos cover everything from the very very big - whales ,baobab trees , and fortunately harmless insects the size of birds, to the amazingly tiny - hummingbirds the size of bees and a snake easily mistaken for a keychain. Every reptile worth oogling from St. Barts to Barbados, from charming geochelone turtles to lividly green lizardry, is vividly depicted in:

A Natural History of Mustique

It's published , naturally , by The Mustique Company, with a foreword by a surprisingly intelligent London School of Economics drop-out named Jagger, ample underwater photos by an amiable Abbe' from the tiny island of Mayreau, Pere Marc da Silva, and an all too offhand introduction to Grenadine geology  that I heartily regret  writing  since I am now doomed to reconnoiter and map the place till get it right. Harvard's Hoffman Lab is sending streams of  Mustiquean  iron, lead and uranium atoms through a mass spectrometer even as I write this. I wish I had never mentioned the Virgin Islands lampropyres  in this otherwise exemplary book. The  present surprisingly waterproof edition is an absolute snip at forty bucks. Available at better rum shops  and travel bookstores far and wide.

While lubbers can fossick pyrite crystals from Virgin Islands lamprophyre veins, winning glittering chalcopyrite  or glowing chacedony and  zeolite crystals takes a raid on the Grenadines. More touristed isles, like St. Lucia are barely cooled piles of lava and volcanic ash largely devoid of minerals . But  ancient basement rocks endow  older relics of creation like  Mustique with ten times the  geology of most islands their size. If you're looking for a really hot diving spot, a  brand new volcanic landmass is perking its way to the surface at Kickem Jenny bank, a long days sailing southwesterly.

Further disclosure where the pyrites of the Caribbean are hiding  awaits the next edition- I went back in February to sample outlying islets and pinnacles. Battowia, though lacking a bar and kind of gnarly to land on , features a booby hatch of  Galapagos quality, with thousands of tropic birds too.

Comments

[B. Heart]

Mnestheus:
Thanks for sharing Adamant perspectives during 2007. I always enjoy them, even those I may comprehend.
Kind regards, Beau.