AGASSIZ : BAHAMAS. Ill 



existence of the others cannot be detected. The faces of the terraces 

 show the exposed limestone to be greatly honeycombed. It is often 

 columnar in appearance, and large caverns and cavities of all sizes open 

 into the exposed vertical faces of the terraces. Some of the ravines run- 

 ning westward from the shore line expose, in their section of the shore 

 hills, high cliffs of limestone similar in structure to those of the terraces. 

 This is particularly well shown in two of the ravines beyond Caleta 

 Point. Some of the hills near the shore, which as seen from the ship 

 seemed to be limestone, must have reached an elevation of at least 

 eleven or twelve hundred feet. To the west of Jauco River the hills in 

 the rear rise to at least sixteen or perhaps eighteen hundred feet, but no 

 shore limestone hills could be detected of a probable height greater than 

 one thousand to twelve hundred feet, judging from the exposures visible 

 in the ravines. 



Near Imia Bay another great ravine has cut through the coast range 

 limestone hills. The second terrace is obliterated by the talus of the 

 third terrace, and the hill behind this rises to about the height of the 

 fourth terrace. This part of the coast must have jutted out somewhat, 

 and that portion of the shore which formerly formed the first and second 

 terraces has been washed into the sea, and left only the steep cliffs form- 

 ing the base of the third terrace, which was further inland. 



Between Sabana la Mar and Baitiqueri there are traces of the second 

 terrace, the third terrace is specially well marked, and indications perhaps 

 of the fourth are visible near the summit of the shore hill. 



To the eastward of Port Escondido the shore hills show the lines of at 

 least four of the terraces. But the breaks in continuity of the terraces 

 due to the elevation of the coast are, as I have stated, very numerous, and 

 by far the greater mass of the shore limestone hills must have been 

 carried into the sea. Formerly their characteristic terraces undoubtedly 

 extended at intervals, if not continuously, all along the southern shore, 

 and probably were as well marked as we have seen them to the eastward 

 near Caleta Point. 



When we come to the entrance of the harbor of Guantanamo, the 

 shore hills show still more plainly the effects of the great erosion which 

 has taken place all along the southern coast. We find this erosion to 

 be greater in proportion as we go northwestward from Cape ^laysi. 

 To the westward of the harbor of Guantanamo we have fragments of 

 the first and second terraces. To the east of the harbor the shore is 

 flanked by low more or less conical hills, which from their shape com- 

 pletely conceal the terraces of which they are only the remnants. 



