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MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 245 
INTRODUCTION. 
PALEONTOLOGY, stratigraphy, and physical geography are the three 
co-dependent criteria by which geologic history is interpreted. A proper 
study of the paleontology of Cuba requires years of residence and patient 
labor by an expert in Cenozoic and Mesozoic fossil forms. The struc- 
tural geology, involving vast petrographic research and tedious travel, 
likewise demands long study; the thick residual soils, the dense vege- 
tation, and the absence of highways and general lack of exposures every- 
where, retard the worker in these branches of geology. While geologic 
research in these fields has already given us criteria without which the 
present paper would have been impossible, the topographic forms reveal 
a story equally interesting and more intelligible, and in the following 
pages I have endeavored to interpret them, with such assistance as 
could be derived from the co-ordinate branches of paleontology and 
structure. 
Literature contains many descriptions of the general geography and 
geology of the island, — especially the works? of Humboldt, Salterain, 
Suess, Crosby, Ramon de la Sagra, Don Manuel Fernandez de Castro, 
and the various publications of Mr. A. Agassiz. Don Manuel Fernandez 
de Castro’s brief pamphlet, accompanied by a geologic map, is an excel- 
lent résumé of the stratigraphy and paleontology of Cuba, and should 
be consulted by any one contemplating the perusal of the present paper. 
Mr. Agassiz’s investigations have made known to science the wonder- 
ful topography of the surrounding ocean floor. M. Elisée Réclus has 
recently compiled the general physical and political geography of the 
island as ascertained by previous investigators, and its relation to the 
surrounding seas and the West Indian archipelago. Professor Suess 
has compiled a chapter on the Antilles, setting forth the present state 
of knowledge concerning the geology of the island of Cuba. These, 
together with Salterain’s description of the geology of Havana, have 
explained in a preliminary way the geography and geology in a manner 
to prepare for an intelligible discussion of the topographic evolution of 
the island, by which its history may in part be finally interpreted. 
1 The titles of these publications are given in notes accompanying the references” 
to them. 
