PLATE D. 
Agave and the Antillean Bridge. 
The assumed Pleistocene land connecting Yucatan and Central America with the north- 
eastern part of South America and its settling into an Antillean bridge of which the present 
West Indies are taken for vestiges. The dotted areas around the land now exposed are approxi- 
mately outlined by present sounding contours and represent the land that would appear if a 
corresponding uniform elevation over the whole area were experienced. Connections to the 
north of the Greater Antilles are ignored because any union with North America that may have 
existed when this land is supposed to have been above the sea has been destroyed. The Bahamas 
stand on a more recently elevated and again submerged bank, which for a time was continuous 
with Cuba. 
Figure 1. This map, supposing a land elevation of 12,000 feet, probably represents more 
land than was exposed when the first agaves entered from Yucatan. The Gulf of Mexico, the 
Sea of Honduras, and the Caribbean Sea are not shown here as connected with either ocean. 
Figure 2. This map, supposing a subsidence to 6,000 feet above the present level, shows 
the bridge already separated from Yucatan and broken by the Anegada Passage, and with 
Jamaica cut off from Haiti, though still connected with Honduras. 
64 
