PHYSICAL ASPECT. 



135 



ulves and living polipfers, large masses of madrepore, 

 and other lithophite corals, enclosed in the texture 

 of the rock, there is reason to admit that all this 

 limestone rock of which the island of Cuba is in 

 great part composed, is the effect of an uninterrupt- 

 ed operation of nature through the action of organic 

 productive forces and partial destruction, and which 

 continues in our time in the bosom of the ocean. 

 But this appearance of recent formation soon disap- 

 pears, when we leave the shore, or when we remem- 

 ber the series of coral rocks which the formations of * 

 different epochs enclose, the muschelkalk, the lime- 

 stone of the Jura, and the -calcaire grossier of Paris. 



The same coral rocks of the Punta castle are found 

 in the highest mountains in the interior of the coun- 

 try, accompanied by petrifactions of bivalve shells, 

 very different from those which at present exist on 

 the shores of the Antilles. Without wishing to 

 assign with certainty to the limestone formation of 

 Giiines a determinate place in the scale of forma- 

 tions, I entertain no doubt as to the relative antiquity 

 of this rock with the conglomerate limestone of the 

 cays, situate south of Batabano, and east of the Isle 

 of Pines. The globe has experienced great revolu- 

 tions between the epochs of these two formations, 



to navigators between Jamaica and San Juan de Nicaragua, and 

 near the Island of St. Andrew. — IL 



