PR — ———— 
16 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOÖLOGY. 
fecbler amplitudes only are indicated in the perizonal continental 
borders. 
The extreme length of the island is 144 miles, its greatest width is 
49 miles, and its least width is 213 miles, from Kingston to Annatto 
Bay. The longest axis lies in east and west directions. The outline 
of the island which encloses 4,2074 square miles,’ about one eleventh 
the area of Cuba and 500 square miles greater than Porto Rico, is an 
elongated parallelogram whose corners have been obliquely truncated, 
resulting in a wide oblong central area from whose east and west ends 
project two broad peninsulas. 
At first glance, the outline does not appear to have any peculiar 
meaning, but when analyzed in connection with the geologic structure 
and adjacent submarine topography, it is of great significance. An in- 
teresting feature of this outline is that, while the major trend of the 
north coast and the island as a whole is east and west, nearly one half 
the coast line is diagonal to this cardinal direction. The northwest and 
southeast trends are survivals of the earller days of Antillean history. 
The predominant east and west directions are produced by a later 
geographic revolution. 
Configuration. — The relief of Jamaica is dominantly mountainous, 
for the interrupted Coastal Plain constitutes only a narrow fringe around 
the island. The first distant view from the east shows a group of 
mountain summits rising above the expanse of sea in a tangled mass, 
apparently without systematic ridges or secondary types of relief fea- 
tures by which its configuration can be classified. The higher summits 
of this end are usually, if not always, veiled in clouds, so that, only the 
lower half of their slopes is ordinarily visible. The mists are appar- 
ently forever present in the upper regions. As the coast is more closely 
approached and the island encircled, the configuration resolves itself 
into differentiated forms, presenting four distinct and easily recognizablo 
major types and numerous secondary modifications, which will now be 
explained. Its chief features are: (1) the interior mountain ranges 
constituting the nucleus of the island; (2) an elevated limestono 
plateau which surrounds the interior mountains, and ends abruptly 
towards the sea; (3) the coastal bluffs or back coast border of the sea- 
ward margin of the plateau ; and (4) a series of low, flat coastal plains 
around the periphery of the island between the sea and the back coast 
border. "The relation of these features is shown in the various profiles 
and sections, 
1 As given by the Jamaican Land Department. 
