290 CRUISE OF THE BARRERA 



hills made by the river just before it debouches 

 into the sea at Matanzas. A subsidence of a 

 hundred feet would convert the Yumuri Valley 

 into a very large "bottle harbor.'* 



From Gobernadora Point east (to about Car- 

 denas) the island shelf is exceedingly narrow, and 

 the blue water of the ocean depths is seen close 

 into shore. In a few places coral reefs flourish 

 upon this very narrow shelf, especially about the 

 harbor entrances, but there. is no opportunity for 

 such extensive growths as we had seen to the west 

 where a wide island shelf furnishes many hundred 

 square miles of suitable depths for the coral polyps. 



At Bahia Honda it was at once apparent that 

 we were in quite a new type of country. A range 

 of high hills some ten or twelve miles inland ap- 

 peared from a distance to be a part of, and con- 

 tinuous with, the Organos system. This, however, 

 is not really the case. Guajaibon is the eastern 

 outpost of the northern series of the Organos 

 Mountains, and the high hills continuing east are 

 structurally different. The southern ranges of 

 the Organos uplift do, however, extend farther 

 east than the meridian of Guajaibon and carry 

 the sierra fauna and flora to about the line of the 



