282 



BULLETIN 103, UNITED STATES NATIOlSrAL MUSEUM. 



than the valleys landward of them. However, as the elevated 

 Cuban reefs under consideration are fringing reefs, it seems to me 

 more probable that they never extended across the harbor mouths; 

 and I will add that the harbor basins had been formed, at least in 

 large part, before the development of the now elevated fringing 

 Pleistocene reefs. 



Crosby, in 1883, seems to have been the first one to recognize the 

 significance of the pouch-shaped harbors of Cuba, He says ■} 



* * * During this period of elevation, Cuba, like most rising lands, had few 

 harbors, but when subsidence began the sea occupied the channels and basins which 

 had been excavated and cleared out by the rivers, and thus a large number of harbors 

 came into existence. * * * They are half-drowned valleys filled to a consider- 

 able depth with land detritus, conditions which could not exist if the land was rising 

 or had risen. 



There are very many pouch-shaped along the Cuban coast, 

 following table presents information on 15 of them: 



Principal Cuban harbors. 



The 



Name. 



NORTH COAST. 



Bahia Honda 



Cabanas 



Mariel 



Habana 



Nuevitas 



Padre 



Banes 



Nipe 



Livisa and Cabonieo. 

 Tanamo 



SOUTH COAST. 



Baitiqueri 



Guantanamo. 



Santiago 



Ensenada de Mora. 

 Cienfuegos 



Shape. 



Palmately digitate . . 



Trilobate 



Irregularly digitate.. 



Trilobate 



Bilobate 



Irregularly bilobate . 

 Palmately digitate . . 

 Unequally bilobate., 



do 



Irregularly bilobate . 



Trilobate head 



Irregularly dumb-bell 



shaped. 

 Unilateral 



Unilateral. 



Maxi- 

 mum 

 width, 



sea- 

 miles. 1 



3.00 

 6.00 

 l.SO 

 <2.00 

 7.00 

 7.50 

 3.25 



8.00 

 5.38 



5.00 

 1.00 



Maxi- 

 mum 



known 

 depth 



in chan- 

 nel or 



harbor. 



Feet. 



2 59 

 79 



3 72 

 6 60 



6 137 



75 



85 



1C234 



"168 



156 



1233 

 59 



58 

 13 139 



Chan- 

 nel 

 length, 

 sea- 

 miles. 



1.50 



.50 



.60 



.75 



4.38 



1.75 



1.50 



6 2.00 



.50 



.63 



.18 

 3.75 



.38 



2.13 



Chan- 

 nel 

 within 

 narrow- 

 est 

 part. 



Feet. 



2,180 



1,825 



900 



470 



1,400 



900 



450 



2,900 



1,300 



600 



300 

 6,530 



675 



'i,'266' 



Height of adja- 

 cent land. 



East 

 side. 



Feet. 

 30-40 

 160 



200 

 Flat. 

 Flat. 



8 100 



6 200 



50-75 



120-176 



590 

 436 



230 



"iso' 



West 

 side. 



Feet. 

 60 

 160 



±10 

 Flat. 



7 Flat. 

 9 150 

 9 200 



75-100 

 120 



600 

 310 



220 

 '157 



1 1 sea-mile=6,081 feet. 



2 110 feet outside at channel mouth. 



3 90 feet in channel mouth. 



4 About. 



6 Submerged channel 100. 



6 100 feet frequent. 



^ Coral rock according to A. Agassiz. 



8 South. 



9 North. 



10 180 feet and over frequent. 



11 150 feet frequent. 



12 78 feet at mouth. 



13 214 feet off Pta. Pasa Caballos. 



It is important to note that where the harbors are digitate in 

 shape, Bahia Honda for instance, one or more streams enter each 

 digitation, and that the mouths of the streapis are either embayed 

 or, in places, swamps and delta plains have formed. The pouch- 

 shaped harbors are not the only indentations of the shore line, for 

 the lower courses of all the larger streams are more or less embayed. 



1 Crosby, W. C, On the elevated reefs of Cuba, Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. Proc, vol. 24, pp. 124-130, 1883. 



