The colonial highway, [23] after crossing the Rivière Salee and its bordering lowlands, turns abruptly southward and skirts the coast as far as Trois Rivières. [There is begining to ascend the high ridge connecting the Vieux Fort mountains with the main back bone of the island] It crosses many flood ash deposits or slopes of debris which I have been brought down from the moun- tains by stream and flood action. The eastern slopes of the high mountains face the trade winds and receive much more moisture and rain than the western . Therefore Streams are more numerous, copious and permanent, the slopes more gradual and