110 J.W.SPENCER — RECONSTRUCTION OF ANTILLEAN CONTINENT. 



rated from the gulf of Mexico by the Yucatan banks and Cuba. Owing 

 to the demarkation just given and the great depths of the central basin, 

 the necessity for a distinctive name in future discussion has caused rae 

 to give the basin the appellation of the sea of Honduras. The imperfect 

 demarkation of the submerged shelves or terraces in the two seas named 

 may partly arise from fragmentary knowledge, due to scanty soundings 

 in some portions of the basins. The deepl}^ submerged Cayman ridge, 

 terminated b}^ the Misteriosa banks, the insular plateau in the eastern 

 part of the Caribbean sea, and the extended plateaus off the Honduras 

 banks, about which we know very little be3^ond their general submerg- 

 ence to de]3ths of 4,000 or 5,000 feet, suggest old coastal plains, now be- 

 neath those seas, and consequent pauses in the terrestrial oscillations at 

 those stages. 



It should be noted that the gulf of Mexico and Caribbean sea are gen- 

 erally broad valleys (sections A ^'and C C of map) and have their coun- 

 terparts on the Pacific side of the continent; but the sea of Honduras is 

 different, being composed of two very deep channels, almost land-locked 

 on both sides, but situated between the mountain ridges of Jamaica, Haiti 

 and Cuba, rising from 7,000 to 9,000 feet above the sea. The sea of 

 Honduras reaches a depth of 20,000 feet, while the Caribbean basin de- 

 scends to 15,000, and the gulf of Mexico to only about 1 "2,000 feet. 



DROWNED VALLEYS OR FJORDS. 



The submerged valleys may be divided into three classes— the notable 

 embayments in the continental plateaus, the valleys crossing the sub- 

 merged shelves, generally at right angles to the mountain ranges of the 

 land, and the vallej^s or fjords parallel to the Antillean chains of moun- 

 tains. 



The embayments are everywhere notable at the terminations of the 

 fjords, and where several such end near together they are broad and 

 conspicuous. As the fjords and embayments coalesce and are more or 

 less apparent through all of the detailed contours, it may be well to de- 

 scribe them at the same time. 



Lindenkohl* has deciphered the records of the canyon of the Hudson, 

 now submerged to 2,832 feet, where the plateau is depressed to only 600 

 feet below the surface of the sea. He has also found in the same plateau 

 another fjord with a depth of 2,334 feet. This is a continuation of the 

 united valleys of Great Egg Harbor and Little Egg Harbor rivers. The 

 Delaware extension is indicated on the map, but not extended for want 

 of the necessary soundings. Along this section of the coast the conti- 

 nental border descends precipitously from about 400 to 8,000 feet. 



* American Journal of Science, vol. xli, 1801, p. 490. 



