10 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



the writings of Hill (Bull. M. C. Z., vol. i6, pp. 243-288, pis. i and 2, 1895), 

 from the report made to General Wood by Hayes, Vaughan and Spencer 

 (1901, pp. 1-I17, pis. 7-29, maps, etc.) and from several papers by the 

 Spanish engineer, don Manuel Fernandez de Castro. The best map of 

 Cuba is the large one in two sheets prepared by the United States War 

 Department (War College Division, General Staff, 191 1), and an e.xcellent 

 local geography also is obtainable in Havana: 'La Geografia de la Isla de 

 Cuba,' by Aguayo and dc la Torre, which may be bought at La Moderna 

 Poesia, a bookshop at 133 Obispo Street. 



The early underlying foundation of the Island consists of ancient 

 metamorphic and igneous rocks, mostly serpentines, diorites and schists, 

 which have been exposed by erosion over wide areas (the savannas). Such 

 areas do not reach to the very shores, except about Santiago. These rocks 

 formed an ancient land which was long exposed. De la Torre, in 1910, 

 described Jurassic fossils from western Cuba, confirming Humboldt's 

 and de Castro's statements as to the existence of deposits of Jurassic age 

 in Cuba (reprint from Annales de la Acad. Habana, 1910, pp. 1-33, 21 pis.). 

 These of course were marine deposits, probably laid down in shallow water. 

 This fauna has recently been studied in detail by Miss O'Connell and 

 shown to be Upper Oxfordian, hence belonging low in the Upper Jura. 

 Now recently Barnum Brown has traced an Upper Jurassic shore line, 

 showing that part of the Island, at least, had emerged prior to this period. 

 Besides these early rocks. Cretaceous formations hav^e been observed 

 extensively along the central axis of the Island from Havana to Santa 

 Clara. Fossils (Hippuritids, i.e., Barrettia) of Cretaceous age are abundant 

 in Camaguey. 



This land mass, already of complex structure, was submerged in 

 early Tertiary times and overlain to a considerable depth by beds of lime- 

 stone of marine derivation. Whether all of the Island was actually sub- 

 merged at the same time, I doubt from faunistic evidence, since some very 

 ancient types still persist unextirpated. Toward the close of the Tertiary 

 the emergence was completed, and during the process folding and warping 

 took place on a very great scale. During Pliocene and Pleistocene time 

 there were various regional movements of uplift which, combined with 

 extensive erosion, have resulted in giving the Island its present conforma- 

 tion. Hill declares that he has found no evidence that Cuba "since its 

 earliest history (the Mesozoic) has had land connection with the United 

 States." In this I incline to agree upon zoographic evidence as well. I am, 

 however, less acquiescent when he adds "that he has no positive evidence 



