128 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



in the distance. To the eastward the Pan de Matanzas rises above the 

 horizon, and the hills which surround it to the eastward and westward 

 make part of the shore line itself. The Bay of Cardenas is easily en- 

 tered, and we anchored close to the town. There is no rock in place 

 at Cardenas, but the rocks brought for building purposes from the neigh- 

 borhood are older limestones. All the way east from Cardenas to the 

 inner southern extremity of Cay Romano there is an excellent water 

 way for small boats. The inland navigation is protected the whole way 

 by an almost unbroken line of cays. The distance between the outer 

 cays and the cays forming part of the immediate shore of the mainland 

 is often considerable, though the depth of water is not great. This 

 wide inland sea-way, and also the channels separating the cays on the 

 wider passages, like "Boca de Caliete, Boca de Marcos, the entrances to 

 Buenavista Bay, Cardenas, Sagua, Caybarien, and others, are undoubt- 

 edly due to mechanical agency. The rock washed by the greater or 

 smaller waves of the outer sea or of the inner bays is readily changed to 

 sand, and thus great stretches of the low cays are converted into flats, 

 and the finer particles washed away, increasing little by little the depth 

 of the water upon them ; the currents deepen the channels between 

 the cays, or form the still deeper passages, giving egress to much of 

 the disintegrated reef rock. 



Cardenas to Matanzas. 



Plate I. ; Plate XIII. Fig. 4. 



The peninsula of Icacos, which forms the western protection of the 

 harbor of Cardenas, is low, fairly wooded in parts, and opposite Diana 

 Cav there is a fine cliff of older limestones ; other outcroppiugs occur 

 also on the peninsula, farther out from Cardenas, and nearer its eastern 

 point. 



After rounding Cay Piedras and passing Monito Cay we followed the 

 low coast making the continuation of the peninsula of Icacos and stretch- 

 ing toward Matanzas. This is flanked on the sea face by low reef rock 

 cliffs, which become higher as we proceed westward ; behind them rise a 

 low range of well rounded limestone hills, perhaps two to three hundred 

 feet in height. In the background, to the eastward, the Limonar range 

 passes into the Santa Clara hills, and they in their turn are connected 

 by a low range of hills (the Camarioca Paps) with the Pan de Matanzas 

 lying to the westward of the entrance to the Bay of Matanzas. 



