IT GEOLOGIC FOBMATIOK. 163 



westward towards Alvarez and Mataneas, they stretch in the 

 direction of the northern coast. Proceeding from the 

 mouth of the Bio Guaurabo to the Villa de la Trinidad, 

 I saw on the north-west, the Lorn as de San Juan, which 

 form needles or horns more than 300 toises high, with their 

 declivities sloping regularly to the south. This calcareous 

 group presents a majestic aspect, as seen from the anchorage 

 near the Cayo de Piedras. Xagua and Batabano are low 

 coasts ; and I believe that, in general, west of the meridian 

 of Matanzas, there is no hill more than 200 toises high, with 

 the exception of the Pan de Guaixabon. The land in the 

 interior of the island is gently undulated, as in England ; and 

 it rises only from 45 to 50 toises above the level of the sea. 

 The objects most visible at a distance, and most celebrated 

 by navigators, are the Pan de Matanzas, a truncated cone 

 which has the form of a small monument ; the Arcos de 

 Canasi, which appear between Puerto Escondido and Jaruco, 

 like small segments of a circle ; the Mesa de Mariel, the 

 Tetas de Managua, and the Pan de Guaixabon This 

 gradual slope of the limestone formations of the island of 

 Cuba towards the north and west indicates the submarine 

 connection of those rocks with the equally low lands of the 

 Bahama Islands, Florida, and Yucatan. 



Intellectual cultivation and improvement were so long 

 restricted to the Havannah and the neighbouring districts, 

 that we cannot be surprised at the ignorance prevailing 

 among the inhabitants respecting the geologic formation 

 of the Copper Mountains. Don Francisco Kamirez, a travel- 

 ler versed in chemical and mineralogical science, informed 

 me that the western part of the island is granitic, and that 

 he there observed gneiss and primitive slate. Probably the 

 alluvial deposits of auriferous sand which were explored with 

 so much ardour* at the beginning of the conquest, to the 



* At Cubanacan, that is, in the interior of the island, near Jagua ant 

 Trinidad, where the auriferous sands have been washed by the waters as 

 far as the limestone soil. Martyr d'Anghiera, the most intelligent writer 

 on the Conquest, says : "Cuba is richer in gold than Hispaniola (S*n 

 Domingo); and at the moment I am writing, 180,000 castillanos of ore 

 have been collected at Cuba." Herrera estimates the tax called King's* 

 fifth (quinto del Key), in the island of Cuba, at 6000 pesos, which indi. 

 cate* an annual product of 2000 marks of gold, at 22 carats ; and cci.se- 



ic2 



