258 APPENDIX. 



with an elevatory movement, and the growth of coral on 

 their outward edges; those parts which appear fringed 

 by living reefs are coloured red. Westward of these 

 banks, there is a portion of coast apparently without reefs, 

 except in the harbours, the shores of which seem in the 

 published plans to be fringed.- — The Colorado Skoals (see 

 Capt. Owen's charts), and the low land at the western end 

 of Cuba, correspond as closely in relative position and 

 structure to the banks at the extreme point of Florida, as 

 the banks above described on the north side of Cuba do to 

 the Bahamas. The depth within the islets and reefs on the 

 outer edge of the Colorados, is generally between two and 

 three fathoms, increasing to twelve fathoms in the southern 

 part, where the bank becomes nearly open, without islets or 

 coral-reefs; the portions which are fringed are coloured 

 red. — The southern shore of Cuba is deeply concave, and 

 the included space is filled up with mud and sandbanks, 

 low islands and coral-reefs. Between the mountainous Isle 

 of Pines and the southern shore of Cuba, the general depth 

 is only between two and three fathoms; and in this part 

 small islands, formed of fragmentary rock and broken 

 madrepores (Humboldt, Pers. Nar., vol. vii. pp. 51, 86 to 

 90, 291, 309, 320), rise abruptly, and just reach the surface 

 of the sea. From some expressions used in the Columbian 

 Navigator (vol. i. pt. ii. p. 94), it appears that considerable 

 spaces along the outer coast of Southern Cuba are bounded 

 by cliffs of coral-rock, formed probably by the upheaval of 

 coral-reefs and sandbanks. The charts represent the 

 southern part of the Isle of Pines as fringed by reefs, 

 which the Columb. Navig. says extend some way from the 

 coast, but have only from nine to twelve feet water on 

 them; these are coloured red. — I have not been able to 

 procure any detailed description of the large groups of 



