or BATABAXO. 
187 
of the vrater is composed of hroken pieces, cemented by 
carbonate of lime, in which grains of (^uartzose sand are 
set. AVhether rocks formed by polypi stdl living are found 
ot great depth below this fragineutary rock of coral ; or 
"J’hether these polypi are raised on the J ura formation, are 
q^iestions which I am unable to answer. Pilots believe that 
the sea diminishes in these latitudes, because they see the 
chain of rocks augment and rise, either by the earth which 
the waves heave up, or by successive agglutinations. It is 
Jiot impossible that the enlarging of the channel of Bahama, 
by which the waters of the Gulf-stream issue, may cause, 
in the lapse of ages, a slight lowering of the waters south 
of Cuba, and especially in the gulf of Mexico, the centre ot 
the great current which runs along the shores ot the United 
States, and casts the fruits of tropical plants on the coast of 
-Norway.* The configuration of the coast, the direction, 
the force, aud the duration of cert<un winds and currents, 
the changes which the barometric heights undergo through 
the variMilo predominance of those winds, are causes, the 
concurrence of which may alter, in a long space ot time, 
**nd in circumscribed limits of extent and height, the equi- 
librium of the seas.f When the coast is so low, that the level 
of the soil, at a league within the island, does not change to 
extent of a fevv inches, these swellings and diminution of 
the waters strike the imagination of the inhabitants. 
The Cayoboniio (Pretty Rock), which we first visited, fully 
Joerits its name from the richness of its vegetation. Every- 
thing denotes that it has been long above the surlace of the 
ocean; aud the central part of the Cayo is not more depressed 
* “ Tlie Giilf-streara, between the Bahamas and Florida, is very little 
"ider than Behring’s Strait; and yet the water riishiiig through this 
passage is of sufficient force and (juantity to put the whole Northeni 
Atlantic in motion, aiid to make its inlluence he felt in the distant strait 
Gibraltar and on the more distant coast of Africa.” — (Quarterly Rev. 
February, 1818.) 
f I do not pretend to e.’cplain, by the same causes, the great pheno. 
aiena of the coast of Sweden, where the sea has, on some points, tlie 
■'Ppearance of a very unequal lowering of from three to five feet in one 
hundred years. The great geologist, Leopold von Buch, has imparted 
aew interest to these observations, by examining whether it be not rather 
■ *nnie parts of the continent of Scandinavia wiiich insensibly heaves up.^ Aa 
analogous supposition was entertained by the inhabitants of Dutch Guiana. 
