the cooler and drier season, followed by the hotter
and drier in the spring, but the temperature is rarely
above 90° Fahrenheit, and 98° is an unusual extreme.
Speaking of the islands as a whole, we may say
that there is in their vegetation and their animal
life a great deal of variety within a general tropical
uniformity. There are strange resemblances in flora
and fauna mingled with curious contrasts. In localities
far apart, in formations of the remote miocene
period, remains have been found of great quadrupeds—
mastodons, elephants, rhinoceroses, and
hippopotamuses— akin to those whose fossils are
due from similar formations in the United States.
In historical times there have been no indigenous
mammals larger than a raccoon. Most of those surviving
are the smaller rodents. Existing species of
animals and even of birds indicate that the period
of migration from the continents and between the
islands by land is remote, the later species being
peculiar to certain islands. Birds of brilliant plumage,
like those of South America, are not common,
but there are fifteen species of humming-birds, five
of which are found nowhere else. T h e reptiles have
affinities with those of Mexico and Central America,
but there is an ant-eater in Cuba whose congener is
found in Madagascar. T h e deep-sea fauna on the
Caribbean side are akin to those of the Pacific Ocean
rather than the Atlantic.
Everywhere in the tepid waters is an abundance
of molluscs and of fish, and sharks lurk about the
reefs. T h e coral-building polyp is found on all the
banks and along most of the shores, raising its fantastic
columns, making fringes to the islands, and
obstructing channels with its persistent structures.
Tangled with the foundations of these are varied
algae and other marine flora, and drifting on the
[surface, especially to the eastward, are acres of
[sargasso, like verdant prairies of the sea.