^0. 1.] 3IATTIIEW — IMPRESSIONS OF CUBA. 31 



■outline to the greater Antilles. Another system of submarine 

 elevations evidently governs the arrangement of the Windward 

 Islands ; for if the position of the shoals and banks connected 

 with them be traced, it will be observed that they also are ar- 

 ranged in parallel and overlapping groups. In this case, how- 

 ever, it will be found that the rid^-es have a S. to N. course, not 

 an E. to W. one, as in the Greater Antilles. The point where 

 these two mountain systems meet (St. Thomas, &c.) is even yet 

 the scene of devastating earthquakes. 



The mountain chains which I have attempted to describe are 

 the frame-work or skeleton of a lariie continental area now sub- 

 merged, and of late years have yielded some curious and inter- 

 -esting proofs of the changes which this whole region has under- 

 gone. Mr. Thomas Bland, well known for his study of the land 

 shells of the West Indies, in an article lately published by him,^^ 

 presents some valuable information bearing upon the past physi- 

 cal history of the Windward Isles. From the observations of 

 the British Admiralty Surveyors, he shews that the elevation of 

 these islands and the adjacent sea-bottom to the height of forty 

 fathoms above the present level, would unite the whole group of 

 the Virgin Islands with Porto Ilico, and would make six laro-e 

 islands of several groups of islands extending southward to the 

 coast of South America. And it would appear that a connection 

 even more complete than is thus foreshadowed, existed in com- 

 paratively late geological times ; for he tells us that '' taking a 

 wide view of the land-shell distribution in the West Indies, it 

 may be said that the f\mna of the islands on the northern side 

 of the Caribbean Sea, from Cuba to the Virgin and Anguilla 

 banks, was derived from Mexico and Central America ; and that 

 from the islands of the eastern side, from the Antigua and St. 

 Christopher banks to Trinidad, from tropical South America. 

 It is noticeable that the mountains in the former islands, ranse 

 generally from west to east, but in the latter from south to 

 north, except in Tobago and Trinidad, v»'here they are parallel 

 with, or in the same direction as the coast mountains of the ad- 

 jacent continent. The present geological condition of the islands 

 affords ample evidence of the lapse of vast periods of time in the 

 earlier Tertiary epochs, during which the limestone formations, 

 extensively developed in most of the islands, were deposited. 



* Am. Philosop. See. N. York, Mar, 3, 1871. 



