LOS ARROYOS TO PUNT A COLORADO 143 



it is then broken into detached peaks of consider- 

 able height. The last points of land jutting out 

 from the mainland — Capes Avalo, Pinatillo, and 

 Colorado — differ from the series of projecting 

 islands which we had been passing every day, only 

 in that they are more elevated and consequently 

 not merely mangrove patches. Upon them are 

 some houses, but their trees (as along the entire 

 coast from Esperanza) appeared to be either 

 dead or greatly injured — probably the result of 

 hurricanes. It was a relief to see white sand beaches 

 replacing the monotonous mangrove littoral. 



Through some misunderstanding of orders we 

 overshot our mark at Punta Colorado and sailed 

 on toward the land dimly discerned beyond — the 

 beginning of the raised coral reef region already 

 referred to, that terminates some forty or fifty miles 

 farther west in Cape San Antonio. Where this new 

 Pleistocene peninsula connects with the older main- 

 land is a deep indentation in the coast called the 

 Bay of Guadiana at the head of which is the little 

 village of La Fe. This is the last port of call for 

 the coasting steamers plying west of Havana, and 

 from it may be reached by a somewhat uncertain 

 stage line the terminus of the railroad at Guane. 



