CAPE SAN ANTONIO 161 



Our bulky trophies soon obliged a return to the 

 ship for their consignment to the vivero. 



Our next point of attack was upon the limestone 

 outcrop at the deserted house. This dark colored, 

 hard, and brittle rock arises from the water some 

 six or eight feet, concaved below by wave action, 

 and "honeycombed" above by erosion into a 

 peculiar irregular surface of sharp ragged knife- 

 blade projections. This rock, never mixed with 

 corals nor containing any fossil remains of marine 

 shells, must be of the same origin as that which 

 forms the foundation of this entire forested region ; 

 it is generally encountered in Cuba wherever the 

 coastal strip has been elevated from a previously 

 shallow sea. The appearance of the rock that im- 

 mediately lines the shore, not only here, but along 

 so much of the Cuban littoral, is quite characteristic 

 and very different from the rock a short distance 

 back, although, as observed, it must be of the same 

 origin. This narrow shore belt of very hard 

 brittle stone of homogeneous structure owes its 

 hardness and its peculiar appearance to a special 

 process of weathering resulting from exposure to 

 the salt spray dashed over it by waves breaking 

 upon its seaward face — a process to which the 



