CHAPTER II 



THE WEST INDIAN WATERS 



The American Mediterranean. Its area and littorals. Distinctness from 

 the oceanic basins. The currents and winds inducing the equable tem- 

 perature and conditions of life. The remarkable submarine configura- 

 tion. The great deeps and flooded mountains. Peculiar aspects of the 

 life of the waters. Influence of the coral polyps in making the rocks 

 of the islands. Passes into the Atlantic. 



HAYING- shown the fundamental relations of the tropi- 

 cal American region, the essential features of its local 

 geography can now be briefly outlined. First a word as 

 to magnitude. When the writer first sailed for these 

 waters he had the erroneous impression, which is shared 

 by many, that the whole West Indian region could be 

 seen and studied in a single season an illusion which 

 was dispelled by a few weeks' experience. It took some 

 time to realize that a journey across the greater length 

 of the Gulf and Caribbean from Galveston to the mouth 

 of the Orinoco was nearly four thousand miles, or one 

 third more than the distance from New York to Liver- 

 pool; that the eastern chain of islands from Florida to 

 Trinidad was strung out for a thousand miles; and that 

 to go from Jamaica, near the geographic center of the 

 region, to any of the peripheral points, such as Colon, 

 Barbados, or Nassau, was a matter of three or four days' 

 steaming. 



The waters of the Gulf and Caribbean, 615,000 and 

 750,000 square miles in area respectively, aggregate 1,365,- 



7 



