10 Geographical Distribution 



contains 43,412, Jamaica 4,256, and Porto Kico 2,970 square 

 miles ; the area of Hayti is said to be about 25,000 square miles. 

 The area of the whole, including the Bermuda group, and also 

 CuraQao and Buen Ajre, being less than that of England, 

 with Wales and Scotland. 



The Bermudas are situate in the Atlantic Ocean, 580 miles 

 E. by S. from Cape Hatteras, and 645 miles N. E. from the 

 nearest point of the Bahamas. 



Looking cursorily at a map, the idea is suggested that the 

 West Indies formed at some period a part of the adjacent conti- 

 nents, but there is no conclusive, if indeed any evidence of the 

 fact. 



The dejDth of the basin in which the waters of the Gulf of 

 Mexico are held is very great : on the north side of Cuba, within 

 £ve miles of the shore near Havana, there is an abrupt descent 

 to the bottom of nearly a mile ! Still greater depths exist in 

 the Caribbean Sea. The islands, in fact, stand as pinnacles 

 resting on the solid crust of the earth in the watery abyss. 

 There is evidence to show, that the last important geological 

 movement of the greater number, if not of all the islands, and 

 of the adjacent parts of the contiguous continents, was of an 

 elevatory character. The geological changes, indeed, which 

 have occurred since the islands can have formed part of any 

 continent, must have been enormous. 



Humboldt {Cosmos^ v. p. 421) remarks on the parallelism 

 of the volcanic fissure extending from south to north through 

 the islands of St. Yincent, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Guada- 

 loupe, with that of Central America, and also on the intersec- 

 tion of a great basin of which, in his view, the Gulf of Mexico 

 and Caribbean Sea form a part, by the plutonic mountain 

 chain ranging from west to east, from Cape Catoche in Yuca- 

 tan, through Cuba, Haiti, and Porto Rico to Tortola and Yirgin 

 Gorda, parallel with the granite and gneiss chain of Caraccas. 



The mountains in Cuba, Jamaica, and Hayti, attain a height 

 of from 7,000 to 8,000 feet ; further to the eastward they de- 



