GEOOEAPHY. 



177 



with shoals, of which the Isle of Pines is but a 

 part, not covered by water. The western portion is 

 known as the Jardines and Jardinillos — the eastern 

 as Cay Breton, Cays de Doce Leguas, and the bank 

 of Buena Esperanza. The navigation of all this 

 extent of southern coast is dangerous, except from 

 the Bay of Oochinos to the mouth of the river 

 Guaurabo. 



The resistance offered by the elevated land of the 

 Isle of Pines to the ocean currents, may be said to 

 favor at once the accumulation of sand and the 

 labors of the coral insect, which thrives in still and 

 shallow water. In this extent of one hundred and 

 forty-five leagues of coast, but one-seventh of it, 

 lying between Cay de Piedras and Cay Blanco, a 

 little west of the harbor of Casilda, presents a clear 

 shore with harbors ; these are the roadstead of Bata- 

 bano, and the bays of Jagua and Casilda. East 

 from the latter port, toward the mouth of the river 

 Cauto and Cape Cruz (inside of Cay de Doce 

 Leguas), the shore, which is full of springs, is very 

 shallow and inaccessible, and almost entirely unin- 

 habited. 



In Cuba, as formerly in all the Spanish posses- 

 sions of America, we find those subdivisions of the 

 country which have so puzzled modern geographers ; 

 these are the Ecclesiastical, the Politico-Military, the 



8* 



