246 BULLETIN OF THE 
I preferred to examine the phenomena entirely de novo, so as to be 
influenced by no preconceived hypotheses, and hence made no study 
of these writers until my report was formulated. After outlining this 
paper I examined this literature, and I hope that the present discussion 
of the topographic and diastrophic phenomena will further advance the 
work so well begun by others. I am also glad to affirm, with a few 
minor exceptions, the views of the structure set forth by these earlier 
writers, and I would earnestly request those who read this paper to 
consult them. 
I. KLEMENTARY GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE. 
The Pre-Tertiary, Metamorphic, and Igneous Foundation. — This is a 
floor of ancient (certainly Pre-Tertiary) rocks, consisting of serpentine 
and igneous material, mostly basic in aspect. These are exposed by 
erosion at various points throughout the island, but, except in the 
Santiago region, they seldom, if ever, form the rocks of the immediate 
coast, although often found quite near it. They now underlie most 
of the island at no great depth, and are exposed in many drainage 
cuts beneath the limestones. Wherever I have seen these rocks — at 
Villa Clara, Havana, and near Baracoa — they had once been covered 
by the Tertiary limestones, but I cannot speak with certainty concern- 
ing the province of Santiago de Cuba, where, according to Kimball, 
traces of limestone as high as 2,300 feet are preserved on the south side. 
On the north side, opposite Santiago, they are certainly overlapped far 
interiorward by the limestones, Some of the igneous and metamorphic 
rocks of the Santiago region may be of later origin and intrusive 
through the limestone, but generally throughout the island they have 
been completely covered by the latter. No Post-Tertiary eruptive 
sheets were seen by me except one small dike which intrudes into the 
greatly folded limestone near the water-works back of Havana. (See 
Plate I. Fig. 3.) 
These older rocks consist of diorites, serpentines, schists, and rarely 
granites, as reported from Santiago ; of serpentines, greenstone, porphyry, 
and basic igneous rocks brought down by the rivers of the north side of 
the east end of the island ; of serpentine and metamorphic rocks with little 
quartz, as seen underneath the limestone in the vicinity of Villa Clara ; 
and of serpentine, tuffs, and old volcanic material, as back of Havana. 
The rare presence of eruptives and of sedimentaries older than Cre- 
