MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. re 
a plateau, and subjected it to the erosion which has since dissected it 
into its present rugged outlines. The Yumuri cliffs were carved from 
it where it formed a sharp coastal scarp, and the Havana and Matanzas 
benches represent synchronous levels with the latter in the west end of 
the island, where the Cuchilla level was of less extent. That this mod- 
ern group of elevations was intermittent, as shown by its alternate cliffs 
and terraces, is evident, the modern soboruco representing the latest 
uplift. 
The elevated benches and terraces which border the coast of Cuba, 
with the single exception of the soboruco, or modern coast reef, are not 
ancient coral reefs either topographically or lithologically, as has been 
asserted, but, on the other hand, are beach and erosion plains, produced 
by rapid elevation of the island in Post-Tertiary time, and carved from 
various formations, principally the older limestones, regardless of struc- 
tural arrangement and composition. Even though the old limestones 
may be remotely of coral origin, which I do not think, and which idea 
I have discussed on a previous page, these old terraces can in no wise be 
interpreted topographically as elevated reefs, for none of the original 
reef topography is preserved. On the other hand, I can give numerous 
instances where the same benches are carved out of the varying compo- 
nent material, which was much folded or disturbed prior to their erosion, 
as is shown in most of the figures. 
The series of terraces around Cape Maysi and Yumuri are carved out 
of a massive matrix of old limestone of undulatory structure, as shown 
in the figures. The terraces or base levels at Matanzas are cut out of a 
series of beds widely divergent in lithologie composition, all dipping at 
angles of from ten to twenty-five degrees. The Moro and Principe Pla- 
teaus at Havana form a planation surface upon a floor of folded limestone, 
in which distinct anticlinal structure can be traced. The terrace upon 
which the Military Hospital at Baracoa is situated is carved across the 
almost vertically inclined edges of the older Miocene limestones. The 
summit of the Yunque, instead of being a coral reef, is a greatly degraded 
peneplain. The soboruco alone of all the levels is topographically an 
elevated reef, and this, as before stated, dees not rise anywhere over 
fifty feet. 
Lack of Evidence of Subsidence. 
I must confess my inability to distinguish any positive evidences of 
subsidence since the beginning of Tertiary time or accompanying these 
elevations, although it would be rational to think that the movements 
