The Navassa Island Riot/Navassa
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ISLAND OF NAVASSA.
NAVASSA.
The Island of Navassa is situated in the Caribbean Sea, (West Indies) 18° 25′ north latitude, and 75° 5′ longitude west of Greenwich, 33 miles southwest of Hayti, and 72 miles east of Jamaica.
It is an upraised Coral Island, filled with Phosphate of Lime. In fact, all the cavities of the coral rock forming the frame-work of the Island, contain deposits of Phosphate of Lime.
The Island was discovered in 1856 by an American, being elevated 300 feet above sea level, and is without a sand beach—standing conspicuously with its rocky bluff as a perpendicular wall. The foot of the Island is incessantly battered by the waves, and much of it has already been undermined, forming a deep cut several feet high, which would necessarily cause it to tumble down, were it not protected by a fringed reef of living corals, this reef forming a breaker several feet wide. A man could easily walk around the whole Island of Navassa, following the foot of the bluff, did the sea not break over it so constantly.
The upper summit of this Island, at its highest point, is 310 feet above the swell of the sea from southeast to northwest. It is heavily timbered by gum and palm trees. The edges of the bluff towards the sea and the reef traversing the summit, have the form of a basin depressing toward the centre; indeed, the whole summit is similarly shaped. The edges of the upper bluff are raised in the shape of an immense brim, followed at variable distances by a second elevation of the same character. Many caves or holes of various sizes are found in the upper summit of the Island, principally near the reefs, and at a depth of some 45 feet perpendicular and about 30 in diameter. This upper summit is encircled by a terrace or shore platform, the bluff descending without interruption down to the sea, except at the northerly point of the Island.
From an elevation of 15 or 20 feet above sea level, at its extremity, or west of what is known as North Point, the height rises at Lulu Bay, (the shipping point), to 60 feet, and at the southeastern end the Island rises to the height of 65 feet. The north side forms a low rocky bed, and in many places slopes down to the level of the sea, until it terminates against the side of the Cliff of "North Point."
The limestone found upon the Island of Navassa is very hard, and clinks under the hammer when struck. In sailing around the Island, the lowest beds above the level of the sea present themselves as a compact rock made of carbonate of lime.