AGASSIZ: BAHAMAS. 5 



Point Caleta, where the terraces are most clearly denned, I should esti- 

 mate at nine hundred to one thousand feet ; though the hills behind the 

 terraces, which, judging from their faces, are also limestone, reach a 

 somewhat greater height, perhaps eleven to twelve hundred feet. 



During our second cruise we steamed from Nassau for Harvey Cay, 

 crossing the bank from north to south as far as Flamingo Cay, and from 

 there passing to the westward of Seal Cay, Nurse Cay, etc. to Great Ragged 

 Island, from which we took our departure for Baracoa. 



At Baracoa I hoped to be able to ascend the Yunque ; unfortunately, 

 the trip was given up, owing to the desperate condition of the roads. 

 From Baracoa we steamed to the westward close to the shore, touching 

 at Banes, Padre, Cay Confites, Sagua, Cay Frances, Cardenas, Matanzas, 

 and finally ending at Havana. On this trip we continued the observa- 

 tions made on the south coast of Cuba, and thus traced the gradual 

 disappearance of the terraces from Baracoa to Nuevitas, and their re- 

 appearance from Matanzas to Havana, from the same causes which evi- 

 dently influenced their state of preservation from Cape Maysi west. 

 We obtained a pretty clear idea of the mode of formation of the flask- 

 shaped harbors found not only on the northern coast of Cuba to the 

 eastward of Nuevitas, but all along the southern coast, and between 

 Matanzas and the Colorado Reefs. They give us in part the explanation 

 of the mode of formation of the extensive system of cays reaching from 

 Nuevitas to Cardenas, and which find their parallel on the south coast 

 of Cuba from Cape Cruz to Cape Corrientes, only upon a much wider 

 plateau, and in the chain of cays stretching towards the western extrem- 

 ity of Cuba behind the Colorado Reefs. 



From Havana we steamed to Cay Sal Bank, visited Cay Sal, the Double 

 Headed Shot Cays, and the Anguila Islands, and then crossed the near- 

 est point of the Great Bahama Bank. The bottom of this bank is of a most 

 uniform level, three and three and a half fathoms for miles, sloping very 

 gradually towards the west shore of Andros, so that we anchored nearly 

 six miles from Wide Opening of the central part of Andros which we 

 visited. The bottom consists of a white marl, resembling when brought 

 up in the dredge newly mixed plaster of Paris, and having about its con- 

 sistency just as it begins to set. The same bottom extends to the shore, 

 and the land itself, which is low where we landed (Wide Opening), not 

 more than ten to fifteen inches above high-water mark, is made up of 

 the same material, and feels under foot as if one were treading upon 

 a sheet of soft India-rubber. Of course on shore the marl is drier, and 

 has the consistency of very thick dough. It appears to be made up 



