78 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 



probably during the slave-trade. Gundlach evidently did not know that it was 

 not a native Cuban species. (Cf. Erp. Cub. 18S0, p. 55). A detailed descrip- 

 tion of this species is given in its systematic position on p. 117. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTE. 



Cuba, the largest and richest of all the West Indies, has an area all told, 

 including the outlying cayos, of about 123,000 square kilometers. The Island 

 is about 1,200 kilometers long and varies greatly in breadth, from 40 to 200 

 kilometers. • It is distant 210 kilometers east of Yucatan, about 180 kilometers 

 south of Florida, and 77 west of Haiti. Generally speaking the rainfall mcreases 

 as one passes eastward through the island. The central provinces of Havana, 

 Matanzas, Santa Clara, and Camaguey are in great part level, devoted to the 

 cultivation of sugar-cane or the raising of cattle and horses. Even in these 

 provinces there are ranges of rounded hills composed of metamorphosed igneous 

 rocks as well as scattered remnants of limestone either in the form of isolated 

 hillocks or mogotes as they are called locally, or more extensive chains called 

 sierras in contradistinction to lomas, the term sometimes used for hills other 

 than those of limestone. In Pinar del Rio and far more so in Oriente the lime- 

 stone ranges are well developed , and reach considerable heights. Pico Tur- 

 quino has an estimated altitude of 2,400 meters and is the highest sunuiiit in 

 Cuba. Spanish language and custom combine to endow any land colonized 

 by Spain with a marvellously complete equipment of place-names and every 

 brook, spring, hillock, or dale whether inhabited or not, if it has ever been visited 

 at all, has some often wonderfully trite name. No one unfamiUar with the 

 local idiom would believe that so great a series of beautifully differentiating 

 names were available for every physiographic feature. This state of affairs 

 makes it very simple to designate accurately the locaUty where one has col- 

 lected. The only difficulty is that names often change. The student inter- 

 ested in the distribution of Cuban species will do well to consult the excellent 

 map (in two large sheets) published by the U. S. War Department and the 

 Geografia de la Isla de Cuba by Aguayo and de la Torre (Habana La Moderna 

 Poesia, 1907). The latter which is the regular text-book of geography used in 

 the Cuban schools is wholly excellent. 



