History of the Island of Cuba. 



which as yet has revealed no history of its details, further- 

 more than this, that from the absence of later deposits and the 

 character of its ancient and much sculptured topography we 

 may fairly infer that it has not since subsided beneath the sea, 

 but has remained mostly dry land and that its area and outline 

 were very nearly as great as those of the island to-day. This 

 includes those portions of the island above the dissected Cu- 

 chilla plains. (2) The Cuchillas, or 600 foot level, represent a 

 plain which was produced by base levelling in the epoch fol- 

 lowing this oldest period of elevation and represents the time 

 interval between it and the later movement recorded in the 

 first or lower group. The country was planed down by ero- 

 sion to near sea level ; it indicates a long interval between the 

 old Junki and the renewed modern elevation recorded in the 

 Tumuri cliffs cut around them. (3) The Tripartite group of 

 modern cliffs, and the base levels below and cut out of the 

 Cuchilla escarpment, are the product of a renewed and modern 

 upward movement which elevated the old Cuchilla base level 

 to a plateau, and subjected it to the erosion which has since 

 cut it into its present rugged outlines. The Yumuri cliffs 

 were carved from it where it formed a sharp coast scarp, 

 and the Havana and Matanzas benches represent synchronous 

 levels with the latter in the west end of the island where the 

 Cuchilla plain was of less extent. This modern group of ele- 

 vations was intermittent as is shown by its alternate cliffs and 

 terraces. The modern Seboruco represents the latest and 

 newest regional uplift. 



The elevated benches and terraces which border the coast of 

 Cuba with the single exception of the Seboruco or modern 

 coast reef, are not ancient coral reefs either topographically or 

 lithologically, as has been asserted ; on the other hand they are 

 beach and erosion plains, produced during a rapid elevation of 

 the island in Post-Tertiary time and carved from various 

 formations principally the older limestones, regardless of struc- 

 tural arrangement and composition. Even if the old lime- 

 stones are coral-made these old terraces can in nowise be inter- 

 preted topographically as elevated reefs, for none of the 

 original reef topography is preserved. On the other hand I 

 can give numerous instances where the same levels are carved 

 out of varying component material which was much folded or 

 disturbed prior to their erosion. 



The series of terraces around Cape Mayci and Yumuri are 

 carved out of a massive matrix of old limestone of undulating 

 structure. The terraces at Matanzas are cut out of a series of 

 beds of widely divergent lithologic composition, and all dip at 

 angles from ten to twenty-five degrees. The Moro and Prin- 

 cipe Plateau at Havana is a planation surface upon a floor of 



