C H A P T E R X I I
THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA
WITH its western extremity at Cape Antonio
pointing across the water toward the headland
of Yucatan (Cape Catoche), the island of Cuba
has the appearance of being a projection from the
Mexican peninsula; but the channel between, one
hundred and twenty miles wide, has a depth of
6000 feet, while that on the north between Cuba and
Florida, while it is of nearly the same width, is less
than a third as deep. In remote geological ages, the
continental connection is believed to have existed on
both sides, but the fossils of huge quadrupeds of
vast antiquity found in Cuba are like those revealed
in the same formations in the United States. F o llowing
the dorsal curve of the island from Cape
Antonio to the eastern point at Cape Maisi, Cuba
is nine hundred miles long, though it is one hundred
and forty miles less measured on a parallel of latitude.
Its width varies between the tapering capes
from forty to one hundred and twenty-five miles,
but the average is about s ix ty miles. Statistics of
area from different sources do not agree, but it is
about 45,000 square miles for the island proper, to
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