CATO TLAMENCO. 191 



later, Yucatan, now a part of the new confederation of the 

 free states of Mexico, has nearly menaced with conqueut 

 the western coast of Cuba. 



On the morning of the llth March, we visited Cayo 

 Flamenco. I found the latitude 21 59' 39". The centre 

 of this island is depressed, and only fourteen inches above 

 the surface of the sea. The water here is brackish ; while 

 in other cayos it is quite fresh. The mariners of Cuba 

 attribute this freshness of the water to the action of the 

 sands in filtering sea-water, the same cause which is assigned 

 for the freshness of the lagunes of Venice. But this suppo- 

 sition is not justified by anv chemical analogv. The cayos 

 are composed of rocks, and not of sands, and their smallness 

 renders it extremely improbable that the pluvial waters should 

 unite in a permanent lake. Perhaps the fresh water of this 

 chain of rocks comes from the neighbouring coast, from the 

 mountains of Cuba, by the effect of hydrostatic pressure. 

 This would prove a prolongation of the strata of Jura lime- 

 stone below the sea, and a superposition of coral rock on 

 that limestone.* 



It is too general a prejudice, to consider every source 

 of fresh or salt water to be merely a local phenomenon : 

 currents of water circulate in the interior of lands between 

 strata of rocks of a particular density or nature, at immense 

 distances, like the floods that furrow the surface of the 

 globe. The learned engineer, Don Francisco Le Maur, 

 informed me, that in the bay of Xagua, half a degree east of 

 the Jardinillos, there issue in the middle of the sea, springs 

 of fresh water, two leagues and a half from the coast. 

 These springs gush up with such force that they cause an 

 agitation of the water often dangerous for small canoes. 

 Vessels that are not going to Xagua sometimes take in 

 water from these ocean springs, and the water is fresher and 

 colder in proportion to trie depth whence it is drawn. The 

 manatis, guided by instinct, have discovered this region of 

 fresh waters ; and the fishermen who like the flesh of these 



* Eruptions of fresh water in the sea, near Baiae, Syracuse, and Aradoi 

 (in Pbenicia), were known to the ancients. Strabo, lib. 16, p. 754. 

 The coral islands that surround Radak ; especially the low island of Otdia, 

 furnish also fresh water. (Chamuso. in Kotaebue's Entdekkungf-Reiae. 

 oL ui, p. 108.) 



