History of the Island of Cuba. 207 



This lowest beach abuts against a vertical cliff (No. 2) about 

 120 feet high (1T0 feet above the sea) worn out of the old 

 white limestone. Its sides are vertical in most places and inac- 

 cessible. This cliff is in turn surmounted by another beach 

 (]STo. 2) which likewise was formerly an old beach level, from 

 which has disappeared any remnant of the old deposition that 

 may have once existed. This bench is about a hundred feet 

 in width and abuts against, a second vertical cliff, the summit 

 of which is nearly as high as that of the first one, or about 350 

 feet above the sea. The level bench (No. 3) mounting this 

 cliff is similar in appearance to No. 2. 



This last bench in turn abuts against the third and upper- 

 most escarpment of the highland, which terminates, at a height 

 of from 500 to 600 feet, in the irregular upland plain forming 

 the fourth level above the sea. This is the general upland as 

 it appears from the sea, and represents the old land from which 

 was carved the group of sea cliffs above described. 



All these cliffs and benches, and the cut of the river, are 

 carved out of the old Tertiary limestone, which here forms an 

 unbroken mass. No trace of terraced structure occurs within 

 the vertical walls of the river canon, showing clearly that the 

 stream has cut its way downward across a rapidly rising land. 



The country surmounting this highest escarpment forms a 

 comparatively unbroken plateau overlooking the sea, at the 

 eastern end of the island, but going westward, the increasing 

 drainage cuts it more and more into numerous serrated hills 

 known as the Cuchillas or "Knives," whose summits, with a 

 general culmination of from 500 to 600 feet, are clearly rem- 

 nants of the Yumuri Plateau. These coastal Cuchillas are a 

 very conspicuous feature from Nuevitas eastward. 



4. The Junki or Higher plain. — A single glance at the 

 peculiar isolated mountain known as the Junki or Anvil situ- 

 ated six miles west of Baracoa is sufficient to show that its sub- 

 level summit is the remnant of an ancient and higher plain 

 than that represented in the Cuchillas. This is a magnificent 

 butte whose summit is put upon the Pilot chart and estimated 

 by Crosby to be 1S00 feet high. The summit is an ovoid 

 mesa, looking apparently level from below, but really having 

 deeply carved drainage ways and an ancient topography indica- 

 tive of long exposure. The upper portion is composed of a 

 mass of the older Tertiary limestones, not coral reef rock as 

 alleged by Crosby, 1000 feet in thickness, the perimeter of 

 which is an almost inaccessible cliff. This rests upon the old 

 Pre-Tertiary metamorphic nucleus. From this summit one 

 can look down upon the Cuchillas, the Yumuri terraces, the 

 elevated reefs and the wide expanse of the ocean ; and inland 

 towards a country showing remnants of its own level, over- 



