78 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 
probably during the slave-trade. Gundlach evidently did not know that it was 
not a native Cuban species. (Cf. Erp. Cub. 1880, p. 55). A detailed descrip- 
tion of this species is given in its systematic position on p. 117. 
GEOGRAPHIC NOTE. 
Cuba, the largest and richest of all the West Indies, has an area all told, 
including the outlying cayos, of about 123,000 square kilometers. The Island 
is about 1,200 kilometers long and varies greatly in breadth, from 40 to 200 
kilometers. It is distant 210 kilometers east of Yucatan, about 180 kilometers 
south of Florida, and 77 west of Haiti. Generally speaking the rainfall increases 
as one passes eastward through the island. The central provinces of Havana, 
Matanzas, Santa Clara, and Camaguey are in great part level, devoted to the 
cultivation of sugar-cane or the raising of cattle and horses. Even in these 
provinces there are ranges of rounded hills composed of metamorphosed igneous 
rocks as well as scattered remnants of limestone either in the form of isolated 
hillocks or mogotes as they are called locally, or more extensive chains called 
sierras in contradistinction to lomas, the term sometimes used for hills other 
than those of limestone. In Pinar del Rio and far more so in Oriente the lime- 
stone ranges are well developed and reach considerable heights. Pico Tur- 
quino has an estimated altitude of 2,400 meters and is the highest summit in 
Cuba. Spanish language and custom combine to endow any land colonized 
by Spain with a marvellously complete equipment of place-names and every 
brook, spring, hillock, or dale whether inhabited or not, if it has ever been visited 
at all, has some often wonderfully trite name. No one unfamiliar with the 
local idiom would believe that so great a series of beautifully differentiating 
names were available for every physiographic feature. This state of affairs 
makes it very simple to designate accurately the locality where one has col- 
lected. The only difficulty is that names often change. The student inter- 
ested in the distribution of Cuban species will do well to consult the excellent 
map (in two large sheets) published by the U. S. War Department and the 
Geografia de la Isla de Cuba by Aguayo and de la Torre (Habana La Moderna 
Poesia, 1907). The latter which is the regular text-book of geography used in 
the Cuban schools is wholly excellent. 
