CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



WITH THE OTHER 



ISLANDS OF 

 THE WEST INDIES 



CHAPTER I 



THE GEOGEAPHIC RELATIONS OF THE WEST INDIES 



Position relative to the continents. Types of the surrounding lands. The 

 east-and-west trends of the Antillean Mountains. Differences between 

 the Gulf and Caribbean basins. 



A PROPER conception of the social and economic con- 

 ditions of the various West Indian Islands and their 

 relations, or rather lack of relations, to the adjacent conti- 

 nents, will be facilitated by a few preliminary words npon 

 the general geography of the American Mediterranean re- 

 gion, of which they are integral parts. This will avoid 

 much unnecessary repetition in the descriptions of the 

 various islands. 



The western hemisphere is divisible into three distinct 

 continental regions, the North, Central, and South Ameri- 

 can. North America is the most western * of the continen t s, 

 and terminates in southern Mexico, at the end of the Rocky 



1 In northern latitudes we look upon the Pacific as situated to our west ; but 



were it not for the island of Cuba and the narrow isthmian neck, one could 



strike it by Bailing almost due south from New York, and the whole of the 



South American continent is situated far east of the mass of North America. 



1 1 



