MUSEUM OF COMPAKATIVE ZOOLOGY. 245 



INTRODUCTION. 



Paleontology, stratigraphy, and physical geography are the three 

 co-dependent criteria by which geologic history is interpreted. A proper 

 study of the paleontology of Cuba requires years of residence and patient 

 labor by an expert in Cenozoic and Mesozoic fossil forms. The struc- 

 tural geology, involving vast petrographic research and tedious travel, 

 likewise demands long study; the thick residual soils, the dense vege- 

 tation, and the absence of higliways and general lack of exposures every- 

 where, retard the worker in these branches of geology. While geologic 

 research in these fields has already given us criteria without which the 

 present paper would have been impossible, the topographic forms reveal 

 a story equally interesting and more intelligible, and in the following 

 pages I Iiave endeavored to interpret them, with such assistance as 

 could be derived from the co-ordinate branches of paleontology and 

 structure. 



Literature contains many descriptions of the general geography and 

 geology of the island, — especially the works ^ of Humboldt, Salterain, 

 Suess, Crosby, Ramon de la Sagra, Don Manuel Fernandez de Castro, 

 and the various pul)lications of Mr. A. Agassiz. Don Manuel Fernandez 

 de Castro's brief pamphlet, accompanied by a geologic map, is an excel- 

 lent resume of the stratigraphy and paleontology of Cuba, and should 

 be consulted by any one contemplating the perusal of the present paper. 

 Mr. Agassiz's investigations have made known to science the wonder- 

 ful topography of the surrounding ocean floor. M. Elisee Rectus has 

 recently compiled the general physical and political geography of the 

 island as ascertained by previous investigators, and its relation to the 

 surrounding seas and the West Indian archipelago. Professor Suess 

 has compiled a chapter on the Antilles, setting forth the present state 

 of knowledge concealing the geology of the island of Cuba. These, 

 together with Salterain's description of the geology of Havana, have 

 explained in a preliminary way the geography and geology in a manner 

 to prepare for an intelligible discussion of the topographic evolution of 

 the island, by which its history may in part be finally interpreted. 



1 The titles of these publications are given in notes accompanying the references 



to tlit'iu 



