54 BRITISH HONDURAS. 



patches or " banks " of this character form splendid localities for 

 coco-nut plantations, and they are being utilised in this manner, 

 both on the cays, as well as along the coast-line. 



In the interior, the vegetation is greatly diversified ; but as 

 the changes in its character appear to be so closely associated 

 with the geological features of the country, a few remarks on 

 the main elements of these features may not be uninteresting. 



As may be gathered from a preceding chapter, British Hon- 

 duras occupies a strip of country, running due north and south, 

 parallel to the sea, and with the high central range, or dividing 

 mountain zone of Central America, immediately at its back. In 

 general, the land rises from the sea coast, in a gentle slope 

 towards the west. Numerous rivers take their rise in the 

 central chain, and these, flowing to the eastward, form deep, 

 slow-flowing rivers, suitable for navigation, and forming natural 

 water-ways to the interior. The underlying strata, composed of 

 quartzy rocks, with here and there carbonaceous shales, sand- 

 stone rocks, and limestone, crop up in the low, detached ranges 

 which intersect the country to the west and south of Belize, as 

 well as in the steep, rugged elevations of the Cockscomb country 

 to the south. Judging by the nature of the rocks, and detritus 

 brought down by the rivers, the central chain of mountains, 

 forming the western frontier of the colony, is composed chiefly 

 of quartzy and felspathic rocks and sandstones of great age, 

 which have been upheaved into their present position under 

 circumstances similar to those which have formed their vast 

 extensions, the Eocky Mountains to the north, and the Andean 

 system to the south. The geological floor of British Honduras, 

 if I may use the term, appears to have been formed by the 

 disintegration and removal of the rocks from the central chain 

 in the west, and their distribution by the action of water or ice 

 over the lowlands to the east. It is maintained by some, that 



