THE BAY ISLANDS. 



259 



communicate through several channels with the open sea. On the west is the 

 Brus (Brewer) lagoon ; on the east the much larger Caratasca (Cartago) basin, 

 with a depth of 16 feet in the centre. The grassy shores of these inlets are clotted 

 over with clumps of fir and other trees, giving the landscape the aspect of an 

 English park. 



Although e ver V where navigable, the Honduras waters rest on a submarine 

 bed scarcely more than 50 fathoms deep, with banks, reefs, and islets rising 

 above the surface. This plateau extends seawards for a mean distance of about 

 18 or 20 miles, when the sounding-line plunges suddenly into depths of 



Fig. 112.— Bay Islands. 

 Scale 1 : 1,500,000. 



Depths. 



to 100 

 Fathoms 



100 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



30 Miles. 



600 fathoms. Beyond Cape Cameron the shallows extend to Mosquito Bank, 

 which projects for nearly 130 miles in the direction of Jamaica. The plateau, 

 which has an average depth of about 20 fathoms, reproduces east of Honduras 

 the same limestone formation as the submerged terrace encircling the Yucatan 

 seaboard. 



Above the submarine bed rises a long line of coralline islets, which are 

 collectively called the Bay Islands, but of which one alone, TJtila, deserves the 

 name of island. Utila stands at the western extremity of the group, at the very 

 edge of the plateau, where the soundings suddenly reveal depths of over 200 fathoms 



