216 BARBOUR: ZOOGEOGRAPHY. 



rather the reverse. It will be surprising indeed if there is not geological evidence, 

 however difficult it may be to find, which will prove that the Swan Islands are 

 the remnants of an ancient land mass which once reached to Jamaica and per- 

 haps, or even probably, also that commissure which once reached from the main- 

 land to the east end of Cuba, via the Cayman Islands when the east end of 

 Cuba was an island separate from the rest of what is now Cuba. Oceanic 

 deeps are certainly not all of ancient origin ; and there are many restricted areas 

 of Cuba, Jamaica, or Florida which if, by some oscillatory or submerging process, 

 they were left above the sea level and their surrounding areas had vanished 

 would be as difficult as Swan Island is to prove their earlier connection with 

 other land, near at hand or far away. 



