300 Naturalist at Large 



At the risk of being dry and prosy I am giving here 

 some arguments which I have used concerning the distri- 

 bution of the animal Hfe in the West Indies. This is matter 

 of great theoretical interest with no practical appUcation 

 of any sort whatsoever. 



A peculiarity of the fauna of Jamaica is the fact that 

 while its proximity to Cuba is practically the same as its 

 distance from Haiti, the evident relationship of the island's 

 fauna with that of Haiti is well marked, while with Cuba 

 it has only in common species which range widely through 

 the West Indian region. Now a possible explanation of this 

 offers itself when we examine a contour map of the Carib- 

 bean Sea. One of these was published as Figure 57 in Mr. 

 Alexander Agassiz's Three Cruises of the Blake (Bulletin 

 of the Museimt of Coifiparative Xoology, 1888, 14). Mr. 

 Agassiz showed here that the Bartlett Deep, of over 3000 

 fathoms, extends between Cuba and Jamaica — doubtless 

 a cleft of very ancient origin. But the depth of water 

 between the great southern arm of Haiti and Jamaica is 

 only from 500 to 800 fathoms. There is, it is true, a hole of 

 a depth greater than this south of the Formigas Bank. This, 

 however, is very Hmited in area, and does not fundamen- 

 tally affect the condition of affairs. The water between 

 Jamaica and the Mosquito Coast of Central America is, 

 much of it, extremely shallow, mostly 100 fathoms or less; 

 though between the Pedro Bank and the RosaHnd Bank 

 there is a narrow stretch of water of about 500 fathoms 

 depth. 



Hydrographically, then, Jamaica is intimately related 

 with both Central America and Haiti, and it seems probable 



