AGASSIZ: BAHAMAS. 121 



Banes to Padre. 



Plate I. ; Plate XIV. Figs. 6 and 7. 



On each side of the entrance to Banes the second terrace could be 

 seen, towards Alulas Point the third can be indistinctly followed for a 

 considerable stretch, and towards the Sama hills there appear to be 

 four, if not five terraces. The winding canon forming the entrance to 

 Banes is a fine example of the passages, more or less tortuous, leading 

 into the flask-shaped . harbors so characteristic of the Cuban coast, — 

 harbors due to the gradual cutting away of the drainage area of which 

 they are the sinks during the elevation of the coast. From the 

 wharf of the banana plantation of the Messrs. Dubois we went inland 

 to the village, to a height of fifty-five meters above the level of the 

 sea and a distance of six kilometers, passing through a region of lime- 

 stone similar in structure to that of the rocks through which the 

 canon forming the entrance of Banes had been cut. We drove up 

 to the summit of a hill about eighty-eight meters higher than the vil- 

 lage, say one hundred and forty-three meters above the level of the 

 sea. The top of this hill was probably a part of the fourth terrace. 

 We found on its highest ridge, forming a nearly level saddle, a species of 

 Astraea in situ. The rock in place here, and lower along the slope of the 

 hill, is everywhere the same limestone, greatly disintegrated, so that the 

 lines of the terraces are nearly everywhere obliterated. 



Having become acquainted with the entrance to Banes (Plate XIV. 

 Fig. 6), we had, on leaving the port, an excellent opportunity to see the 



OUTLET OF PORT BANES. 



canon through which we passed out, and to note the deep cuts, from 

 seventy-five to one hundred feet in height, forming the nearly ver- 

 tical sides of the main channel. The channel carries from four to six 

 fathoms, is long enough and tortuous enough to make a perfectly land- 

 locked harbor, which opens out after a little over a mile into a broad 

 bay with deep water, from five to six fathoms, close to the shore. The 



