HILL: GEOLOGY OF JAMAICA. 211 
western Cuba, presenting a curve singularly parallel with the Trans- 
Mississippian extension of the southern front of the Appalachians. 
Next to the southward comes the true axial Antillean range of Porto 
Rico, Haiti, and the Santiago coast of Cuba, the Sierra Maestra of 
Cuba, and the Misterosa bank between the Caribbean and Yucatan 
Seas, to the Gulf of Honduras. From the centre of this a southern 
limb bifurcates and extends through the southwest peninsula of Haiti 
towards Jamaica, the Rosalind and Mosquito banks into northern Hon- 
duras, breaking up into numerous parallel ranges in Honduras, Nica- 
ragua, and the submerged banks. 
The continuity of the main Antillean axis of Haiti is through Porto 
Rico, the Virgin Islands, and St. Croix, breaking directly across the 
lines of the Bahaman and Caribbee trends, and not curving southward, 
continuously with the latter, as suggested by Suess. 
A third line of Antillean trends is through the axis of the Isthmus 
of Panama, the Goajira peninsula of Colombia, and the islands of Curagoa 
and Bonaire, pointing towards distant Barbados. 
The fourth and most southern line of the group, closely related to 
and in echelon arrangement with the last, is the “ Carribischen ” system 
of the Venezuelan coast, embracing the Sierras Costano and Del Interior 
of Guaira, the peninsula of Paria, and the island of Trinidad. 
I have given a general outline of the present arrangement of this 
system. During this epoch of mountain making, in my opinion, the 
land areas of the American Mediterranean received their greatest ex- 
pansion and attained entirely new conformation. The Antilles were 
raised from submerged island peaks into a large continuous and con- 
nected land, which included most of the now submerged ridges and 
slopes, bringing up with them to a height of 3,000 feet above the sea 
the deep oceanic deposits (Globigerinal and Radiolarian earths) of the 
previous epoch. The Caribbean Coastal Plains of Honduras, Costa 
Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela were elevated above the sea 
and intensely folded into the present east and west ridges which occur 
in those regions. 
The effect of this mountain making epoch is clearly and unmistakably 
exhibited in the geologic structure of Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba,! Porto 
1 The chief orogenic movements which gave to Cuba its most rugged relief 
took place in late Tertiary time, as is shown in two published cross sections 
of the island, the first of which, by the writer, is in the longitude of Havana, and 
the second across the east end from Guantanamo to Sagua la Grande, by Valentine 
Peleterro (Boletin de la Comision del Mapa Geologia de Espano, Tom. XX. 
Pp. 89-98, Madrid, 1895). 
