252 BULLETIN OF THE 



At Baracoa the upper layers are Miocene. Humboldt, De Castro, La 

 Sagra, and others have recognized the Tertiary age of these limestones, 

 and their distinctness from the modern reef rock, or soboruco. Concern- 

 ing them De Castro says : — 



" The Tertiary terrane in the island of Cuba is more important in view of the 

 great extent it occupies, the abundance of its fossils, and various circumstances 

 which are peculiar to it, and which" would supply matter for a long discussion. 

 I shall have to confine myself, however, to saying that at one time it must 

 have covered nearly the whole surface of the island, judging by what still 

 remains of it, notwithstanding the denudation which it has undoubtedly suf- 

 fered. A glance at the sketch will serve for a description or enumeration of 

 the localities where it is found,^ although it is probable that, when the whole 

 territory of the island is studied as has been the immediate vicinity of Havana, 

 Matanzas, Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba, part of the color representing the 

 Tertiary terrace will have to be replaced by colors indicating older formations, 

 which, like the Cretaceous, have not yet beeu recognized owing to lack of data. 

 " The presence of Carcharadon me^aiorft; /i, belonging exclusively to the Mio- 

 cene period in Europe, although found in America also in the Eocene ; the 

 abundance of Orbitoides mantelli, a foraminifer which in the United States 

 characterizes a bed belonging to the Upper Eocene ; the occurrence of Orbitoi- 

 des at many points, as in the vicinity of Pinar del Rio, at the western end of 

 the island of Cuba, and at localities on the eastern part of the island of Santo 

 Domingo, forming an extensive horizon, would permit the exact determination 

 of the age of the different beds above and below those containing this forami- 

 nifera. For the present I will confine myself to saying that in Cuba there 

 undoubtedly exist deposits of the three periods into which the Tertiary is 

 divided, because among seventy genera and more than two hundred species 

 of fossils thus far found, there are, besides those of the Eocene and Miocene, 

 a great number which belong to the Pliocene. 



" The Eocene is perfectly represented, and there are many fossils which, if 

 they are not identical with those referred in Europe and India to the Num- 

 mulitic, greatly remind one of them. ... It may be said that in Cuba the exist- 

 ence of the Miocene and Pliocene has more evidence, in view of the abundance 

 of fossils distinguishing those ages."^ 



It would be desirable to make a complete study of these old tertiary 

 deposits, but it would require years of careful paleontologic and strati- 

 graphic investigation. The observations made by me at various localities 

 were not sufficiently numerous to enable the construction of a generalized 

 section, or to permit deductions concerning the permanency or continuity 



1 Found also by me in the Armendaris section near Havana. 



2 Pruebas Paleontologicas, p. 7. 



