GRENADINES

also called Grenadine Islands, chain of about 600 islands and islets in the southeastern part of the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies, ranging over 60 miles (100 km) generally southwesterly from St. Vincent to Grenada. The northern Grenadines are administratively part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (q.v.), while the southern islands are a dependency of Grenada (q.v.). The Saint Vincent group consists of Bequia, Canouan, Mayreau, Mustique, Union Island, and associated islets. Carriacou Island, the largest of the Grenada group, has an area of 13 square miles (34 square km). Few of the islands are inhabited. The low, uncertain rainfall makes agriculture and settlement precarious, and the islands are only lightly cultivated, the main product being Sea Island cotton grown on Carriacou. Nevertheless, the Grenadines were, in the past, plantation areas settled by the French. A ridge of hills rising 980 feet (300 m) crosses Carriacou from northeast to southwest; on the west coast there are two good harbours, Hillsborough Bay (site of the chief town, Hillsborough) and Tyrell Bay, farther south. Resorts and home sites, hotels, and yachting marinas were developed in the 1970s on Bequia, Palm (formerly Prune), Petit St. Vincent, Union, and Youngs islands. There is an airstrip on Carriacou.