GEOLOGY OF GUATEMALA AND SPANISH HONDURAS 521 
drainage is largely underground. One cave on the Belize River is 
said to rival the Mammoth Cave in size. 
RECENT CHANGES OF LEVEL 
A stillstand of the Central American coast is scarcely possible, 
as is indicated by the frequent earthquakes which disturb the 
country. In Guatemala perceptible earthquakes are frequently of 
daily occurrence on the high plateau, as at Guatemala City, but are 
relatively rare on the Atlantic shore. Changes of level are recorded 
along the Atlantic shore in elevated coral reefs and terraces and in 
drowned valleys. 
Evidence of uplifts are seen on Utilla Island. A coral reef 
covers the summit of Stuert Hill, 169 feet high, and less conspicuous 
reefs are found at lower levels, the lowest being a recently elevated 
reef 3 feet high on the eastern side of the island. The same recent 
uplift may account for the narrow bench in front of a wave-cut 
cliff of basalt on which the town Utilla has been built. Extensive 
coral reefs and cays surround Utilla Island, but they nowhere skirt 
the mainland of Honduras or Guatemala in the regions examined. 
Lagoons fronted by a continuous sandy beach skirt the northern 
coast of Honduras. The beaches are tied to rocky headlands and 
to river deltas, but they extend across the mouths of rivers in the 
form of bars 2 to 6 feet in depth. A normal tide of only about 
one foot and littoral currents from west to east have favored the 
construction of the bars. No vertical movements are connected 
with their formation. 
Elevated benches obscured by dense vegetation probably occur 
all along the coast, but these benches are evidently not very recent, 
as they lack well-defined facets toward the coast except at Living- 
ston and near Puerto Cortez. At Livingston, Guatemala, the town 
is built on terraces 35 and 55 feet in height. Across the bay from 
Puerto Cortez, at Tulian, distinct 40- and 60-foot terraces were 
seen. No corals or marine shells were found on any of these ter- 
races. Shells are common on the present beach, but coral frag- 
ments are absent. 
Evidence of earlier subsidence in both Honduras and Guatemala 
was seen in the broad river valleys filled with alluvium in which the 
