AGASSIZ : BAHAMAS. 



131 



terraces of the shore line. The height of the bluffs of the shore line, or 

 of the hills corresponding to the third terrace, is about three hundred 

 and fifty feet. Seen from the mouth of Canasi River Gap the limestone 

 hills through which the river has cut its way remind one of the flat hills 

 apparently damming the course of a river in the anthracite region of 

 Pennsylvania. 



In the background, after passing westward of the gap, the Jaruco hills 

 come into view\ They are greatly eroded as seen from the sea, and 

 present the characteristic erosion of the vertical cliffs of the limestone 

 hills on the eastern extremity of Cuba. The same seems also to be the 

 case with the hills to the rear of the Santa Cruz cut. Inland behind the 



^^ - ., r^^' 



SANTA CRUZ GAP. 



third terrace, where it can be traced near Santa Cruz, the general level 

 of the land appears lower than the terrace in front of it. There seems to 

 have been an extensive valley, parallel with the coast, formed by erosion 

 to the rear of the shore hills. The range of hills extending to the west- 

 ward towards Havana is the continuation of the Sierras do Jaruco. It 

 seems to trend somewhat away from the coast, and also to be considerably 

 lower. The Managua Paps are marked on the chart as not more than 

 seven hundred and thirty-two feet high. In the vicinity of Havana the 

 second row of hills is not of greater heiglit than that of the third ter- 

 race. To the westward of the Jaruco River entrance there are large 

 isolated blocks, the remnants of the soboruco after the general disinte- 

 gration of the first terrace. These indicate cleai'ly the extent of tlie 

 erosion whicli has taken place, and wliicli hns here widened tlie reach 

 of tlie slope of the first terrace towards the base of the cliffs or of the 

 hills forming apart of the second terrace. Professor Dana ^ has called 

 attention to the existence of similar huge masses of reef rock upon the 

 shore platform of coral islands. 



i Corals and Coral Islands, p 179. 



