THE WEST INDIAN WATERS 9 



few feet lower these ridges would completely landlock the 

 seas from, the ocean. 



Further study shows that this vast tropical sea is com- 

 posed of a number of distinct basins, each marked by great 

 depths and separated by lands or shallows a condition 

 somewhat comparable to that of our Great Lakes, if they 

 and their adjacent lands were united into a continuous 

 body of water by slight regional subsidences. These 

 secondary divisions, which appear small upon the map 

 and have less conspicuous land inclosures, are really 

 extensive bodies of water, such as the Mosquito Gulf, nes- 

 tling in the curve of the Isthmus of Panama, and forming 

 the southwest termination of the Caribbean Sea; the 

 Gulf of Honduras, which is almost landlocked by Yucatan, 

 Cuba, Jamaica, and the submerged Eosalind Bank on the 

 south ; and the Haitian Sea, or Old Bahama Channel, as 

 the sailing-masters formerly called the long stretch of 

 water between the Bahamas and the northern shores of 

 the Antilles. 



The American Mediterranean in its entirety may be 

 considered a great whirlpool or oceanic river. This is 

 caused by the tremendous velocity with which the waters 

 of the Atlantic, moved by wind and terrestrial motion, 

 pour into the Caribbean Sea through the straits between 

 the Windward Islands and the passage between Cuba and 

 Santo Domingo. These rush impetuously through the 

 Caribbean Sea until they meet the Central American 

 coast. Failing to find a westward passage across this 

 barrier, they are deflected northward around the western 

 end of the Antilles, through the Yucatan Channel, and into 

 the Gulf of Mexico, out of which they flow to the east, 

 through the Strait of Florida, as the great Gulf Stream. 

 The normal westerly movement of this current through 

 the Caribbean Sea is estimated at from ten to twenty 

 cubic miles of water per day. 



After passing at an accelerated speed through the 

 Banks Strait, between Jamaica and the Mosquito Reef, 



