BASISS OE THE MEDITEHRANEAN. 
357 
eeries of the volcanos of Giiatiuiala . The basin of the est 
Indies forms, as ive liavo already obsei'ved, a MediterraneaJi 
with several issues, the inHuoiice ot which on the political 
destinies of the New Continent depends at once on its 
central position and the great fertility of its islands^ The 
outlets of the basin, of which the four largest * are 7 [) miles 
broad, are all on the eastern side, open towards Europe, and 
ngitated by the current of the tropics. In the saine manner 
as we recognize, in our Mediterranean, the vestiges of three 
ancient basins by the proximity of Khodes, Scarpanto,^ 
Caiidia, and Cerigo, as well as by that of Cape Sorello of 
ISicily, the island of Pantclaria and Cape Eon, in Africa ; 
so the basin of the West India Islands, which exceeds the 
Aleditcrrauean in extent, seems to present the remains of 
ancient dvkes which joini" Cape Catoche of Yucatan to 
Cape San" Atonio of the island of Cuba; and that island 
to Cape Tiburon of St. Domingo ; Jamaica, the Bank of La 
Vibora, and the rock of Serranilla to Cape Gracias a Dios 
oil the Mosquito Shore. From this situation of the most 
prominent islands and capes ot the continent, there results 
a division into three partial basins. The most northerly has 
long been distinguished by a particular denomination, thaS 
of the Gulf of Mexico ; the intermediary or central basin 
may be called the Sea of Honduras, on account of the gulf 
of that name which makes a part of it ; and the southern 
basin, comprehended between the Caribbean Islands and the 
-coast of Venezuela, the isthmus of Panama, and the country 
of the Mosquito Indians, would form the Caribbean Sea. 
The modern volcanic rocks distributed on the tno opposite 
banks of the basin of the West Indies on the east and west, 
hut not on the north and south, is also a phenomenon worthy 
of attention. In the Caribbean Islands, a grou]) of volcanos, 
partly extinct and partly burning, stretches from 12 to 18 ; 
and in the Cordilleras of Guatimala and Mexico from lat. 9 to 
* Between Tobago and Grenada ; Saint Martin and the Virgin Isles ; 
Porto Rico and Saint Domingo ; and between the Little Bank of Bahama 
and Cape Caflaveral of Florida. . 
+ 1 do not pretend that this hypothesis of the rupture and the ancient 
continuity of lands can he extended to the eastern foot of the hasin of the 
West Indies, that is, to the series of the voleanic islands in a line from 
Trinidad to Porto Rico. 
