CATO n.Airicsco. 
191 
I'lter, Yucatan, now a part ot the new confederation of the 
free states of Mexico, has nearly menaced with conquest 
the western coast of Ouha. , . 
Ou the morning of tlie 11th March, we visited Cayo 
Flamenco. I found the latitude 21“ 59' 39". The centre 
of this island is depressed, and only fourteen inches above 
tile surface of the sea. The water here is brackish ; while 
ill other cavos it is quite fresh. The mariners of Cuba 
attribute this freshness of the water to the action ot the 
sands in filtering sea-water, the same cause which is assigned 
for the freshness of tlie laguiics of Venice. But this suppo- 
i^ition is not justified by anv chemical analogw The rayos 
are composed of rocks, and not ol sands, and their smallncMi 
renders it extremcl v improbable that the pluvial waters shonld 
unite ill a permanent lake. Berhaps the fresh water ot tins 
rhain of rocks comes from the neighbouring coast, from the 
mountains of Cuba, hy the effect of hydrostatic pressure. 
This would prove a prolongation of tlie strata ot Juia time- 
stone below the sea, and a superposition of coral rock on 
fhat limestone.* 
It is too general a prejudice, to consider every source 
nf fresh or salt water to be merely a local plicnomeiioii . 
currents of water circulate in the interior ot lauds between 
strata of rocks of a particidar density or nature, at imnieiise 
distances, like the floods that furrow the surface of tlie 
globe. The learned engineer, T)on Francisco Le I'lnnr, 
informed me, that in the bay of Xagua, half a degree cast o 
the Jardinillos, there issue in the middle of the sea, springs 
of fresh water, two leagues and a half from the coast. 
Fliese springs gush up with such force that they cause an 
'‘gitatiou of the water often dangerous for small canoes. 
Vessels that are not going to Xagua sometimes take in 
■"’aterfrom these ocean springs, and the water is fresher and 
Colder in proportion to the depth whence it is drawn, ihe 
manatis, guided by instinct, have discovered this region ot 
fresh waters; and the fishermen who like the flesh oi these 
• Eruptions of fresh water in the sea, near Baits, Syracuse, and Aiadui 
(>n Phenicia), were known to the ancients. Strabo, 
^'he coral islands that surround Radak; especially the low island of Otdm, 
furnish also fresh water. (Chamisso, in Kotzebue s Entdekkung«-Reue, 
ml. iii, p. 108.) 
