216 
BULLETIN OE THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
formation. Usually the walls of the sink-hole retreat downward and sidewise, 
suggesting- that a channel til led with water extends down and out from the sink-hole. 
The impression is irresistibly made that there exists here an extensive series of 
drowned caves. As our visit to the caves occurred near the end of the dry season, 
this excess of water could not have been due to recent excessive rains. The water in 
the caves was, however, still falling and fell several inches during March. 
The condition could have been brought about (1) by the rising of the southern 
coast of Cuba, resulting in a changed incline in the underground streams and a con- 
sequent drowning of the caives; (2) by a blocking of the outlets of the streams; (3) 
by an increase of the rainfall above that provided for in the past. 1 was at first 
inclined to favor the first view, since caves as widely different as those of Canas and 
Alacranes showed the same characters; but a cave at Matanzas, on the northern slope, 
showed exactly the same conditions. A local blocking of the outlets is scarcely 
conceivable on account of the wide separation of caves showing the same conditions. 
Concerning the rainfall I am not able to speak, but an} r other cause, since the caves 
are above the level of the ocean, does not occur to me. 
The detailed description of various caves may begin with Modesta No. 1. The 
caves, for the most part, do not have distinctive names, but are called after the Finca 
on which they occur. I have added the numbers 1, 2, etc., for convenience. Modesta 
No. 1 is an ideal cave of which all the rest are modifications. There is nothing on 
the surface to distinguish it when one is a few feet away. The cave is bell-shaped, 
with an opening 10 to 15 feet at the top. A tree growing at its margin sends vertical 
roots down to the bottom. On these roots notches have been cut, and the descent is 
made by means of them. At the water level at the time of our visit the cave was 
oval in section, 30 by 45 feet in extent. In the middle of the bell, and immediately 
under the opening, there was a large pile of rocks, cemented together in places by 
stalagmitic material and rising but a few inches above the water. The water, beauti- 
fully clear, became rapidly deeper in all directions and could be seen to extend out 
in at least two directions in deepening channels filled to their top with water. The 
roots descending from the opening at the top to the island, a distance of about 15 
feet, here divided suddenly into a tuft of innumerable rootlets, most of them in the 
water. Such roots were found in almost all the caves, and the young blind fishes 
were always found in among the rootlets; the big ones among the rocks. 
Modesta No. 2, also called Hawey, is a cave of the same type, except that the 
central mass of fallen rock forms an arch over the water, and that it can be reached 
from one side by an inclined plane, also formed of fallen material. Rootlets were 
very abundant here and small blind fishes equally so. The water was probably not 
more than 10 feet below the surface and at one edge was very deep — how deep we 
had no means of determining. Part of the opening had at one time been walled in 
and the cave was used as a well. It is possible that this is the well mentioned by 
Pocy as being near Frias and containing blind fishes. But a number of other wells 
in the neighborhood reach caves. 
Modesta No. 3 contained no blind fishes. 
San Isidro No. 2 is a duplication of Modesta No. 1, but with different propor- 
tions. The central mass is higher and holds a number of stalagmites. It is only 
partially surrounded by water. The entrance is by roots. 
