132 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



To the westward of the Jaruco River the shore hills gradually become 

 lower; they are not above four to five hundred feet in height, with 

 rounded slopes, from which all traces of the terraces have been oblit- 

 erated. Only here and there can we trace the first terrace. As we 

 approach Havana from the eastward the shore hills continue to dimin- 

 ish in height, showing greater marks of erosion. They are not above 

 two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet, and when the Morro comes 

 in sight they are about a hundred to a hundred and twenty feet. It is 

 only near the Morro that the terraces are again discernible. The first 

 terrace is most prominent to the westward of the entrance of the har- 

 bor, while some of the hills which surround the port can readily be 

 recognized as pails of the second and third. The higher hills to the 

 southeast of Havana show no traces of terraces. To the westward the 

 table-land of Mariel consists of several terraces, the steps of which are 

 plainly visible on entering the harbor of Havana. The reef rock of 

 the first terrace (Plate XLY.), extending westward from the Castle de la 

 Punta to the San Lorenzo quarries, is full of fine specimens of corals, of 

 the same species which have characterized the first terrace of the ele- 

 vated reef wherever we have examined it, whether at such distant points 

 as Saboney, Baracoa, and Cay Confites, or at Matanzas or Havana. 



To the westward of Havana the coast hills are low. They are flanked 

 by the line of the first terrace, and cut through here and there by the 

 valleys of the small rivers taking their rise in the Mariel table-land, and 

 in the broken range extending westward to the Sierras de los Organos. 

 Mariel, Cabanas, and Bahia Honda are the only flask-shaped harbors 

 found between Havana and the eastern extremity of the Colorado Reef. 

 The Colorado Reef forms the edge of a plateau extending outside of the 

 shore line from Bahia Honda to Cape San Antonio ; there are on it com- 

 paratively few cays (Plate XI IT. Fig. 5). That part of the coast resem- 

 bles only in a general way the cay protected shore of Cuba extending 

 from Cardenas to Nuevitas. 



On leaving Havana for Cay Sal we kept farther out to sea than when 

 steaming from Matanzas west. We were thus able to get a better view 

 of the inner range of hills rising behind the low shore hill range. 



