No. 1.] MATTHEW — IMPRESSIONS OF CUBA. 29 



a whole was not well exposed at any of the points I visited ; but 

 the limestones, which appear at the river side on the Constancia 

 Estate, and are also exposed in the vicinity of the buildings on 

 Concepcion Estate opposite to it, cannot be regarded as the same 

 with those alluded to in the preceeding remarks on the surface 

 geology of this region. The limestones there spoken of as crop- 

 ping out on the ridge west of the Damuji are clearly underlaid 

 by sandstones holding Cretaceous fossils ; and although sub-crys- 

 talline, fine-<>rained and homogeneous, cannot be re<i;arded' as 

 primary. Their lower beds are grey and impure, but did not 

 yield any recognizable fossils : the grey grit and sandstone, 

 however, upon which they rest, contains shells of the genera 

 Conns and Oliva, several small undetermined bivalves, and num- 

 bers of a small echinoid form resembling Ciderites. These 

 organisms were observed in the sandstones, on the hill-side just 

 above the buildings of the Constancia Estate, where both the 

 limestones and sandstones dip westward at a very low angle. I 

 was informed that the sub-crystalline limestones of this group rise 

 to the surface in the Zapato Swamp, where there are sharp pin- 

 nacles of rock similar to those already described on the ridge 

 west of the Damuji. Crystalline limestones compose a large part 

 of the strata which rise to the surface again still further west- 

 ward in the Tsle of Pines. 



I observed the arenaceous strata of this series at two other 

 points in the river valley, which would if connected carry them 

 diagonally across the stream. The first of these places met with, 

 in ascending the river is the Passa, or Ferry, on the Cienfuegos 

 road. There are here grey and buff sandstones, containing shells 

 of the genera Exogi/ra, Ostraa, and Inoceramus. Also at 

 Limones, a farm in a little valley further up, there are beds of 

 dark red and grey sandstone holding shells of the genera Ostrcea 

 and Inoceramus. The sandstones are accompanied by a brown 

 conglomerate holding pebbles of felspar-porphyry and diorite. 



The limestones of Constancia Landing and Concepcion Estate,, 

 already mentioned, lie along the eastern side of the arenaceous 

 band seen at Constancia buildings and the " Ferry." They are 

 mostly of a pale buflf tint, and are replete with organic remains — 

 being in fact Hippurite-limestones. This type of shells (^Hlp- 

 purites) of several species, with Ccqjrinella and Cajyrotina f 

 abounds in them ; and they also contain corals and several kinds 

 of univalve and bivalve shells among which are a large Oliva, a 



