HILL: GEOLOGY OF JAMAICA. 211 



western Cuba, presenting a curve singularly parallel with the Trans- 

 Mississippian extension of the southern front of the Appalachians. 



!N'ext 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, 2sica- 

 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 Curacoa 

 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). 



