GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE WEST INDIES 383 



lands, the Gulf Stream flowed out from the American 

 Mediterranean as now, but through a passage across the 



northern half of Florida, completely severing the Wes1 

 Indies from North America, and that southern Florida 

 was at oik- time a Wesl [ndian island. Nevertheless, 

 daring at Least one t-p. ..-h the Great Antilles were prob- 

 ably connected into a single large island, while the 

 Bahama hanks to the northward made a Long peninsula 

 nearly as Large in area, projecting out from Florida. 

 Furthermore, the great hanks of the western Caribbean 

 Sea were at that time projections of Land probably con- 

 necting Central America with Jamaica and possibly Cuba. 

 All of these areas, with parts of Central America, may 

 have been a vasl Island Lying between the continents (for 

 it is most probable that Central America then had no 

 connection with North or South America), thereby ful- 

 filling the old conception of an Atlantis; but man had not 

 nt that time appeared upon the earth, or, if so, it has not 

 been proved, and hence there is no reason for supposing 

 that this body of land was the Atlantis of the Grecian 

 myth. 



The geological history of these islands has been charac- 

 terized by gigantic revolutions, marked by remarkable 

 oscillations up ami down, and general changes in area of 

 the hmd and sea, such as are unknown or hut feebly re- 

 flected in the synchronous history of the more stable and 

 adjacent continents. The merest tyro in geologic know- 

 ledge knows that the eastern half of the United States, 

 except the narrow coastal plain, has long been a stable 

 land, covered with vegetation and drained by rivers since 

 the Carboniferous period. He also knows that at the end 



<>f the Cretan as and the beginning of the Tertiary 



period the greal Cordilleras of the western half <f North 

 and South America were elevated approximately to their 



presenl outlines and that fche main continents then passed 

 into ;i period of old age. At this lime, however, the 



known history of the West Indie. was just beginning; 



