Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Were They Only Twenty Or Thirty Feet Higher, An Island
Much Larger Than St. Domingo Would Appear At The Surface
Of the ocean.
The chain of breakers and cayos that bound the navigable part of the
Old Channel towards the
South leave between the channel and the coast
of Cuba small basins without breakers, which communicate with several
ports having good anchorage, such as Guanaja, Moron and Remedios.
Having passed through the Old Channel, or rather the Channel of San
Nicolas, between Cruz del Padre and the bank of the Cayos de Sel, the
lowest of which furnish springs of fresh water, we again find the
coast, from Punta de Icacos to Cabanas, free from danger. It affords,
in the interval, the anchorage of Matanzas, Puerto Escondido, the
Havannah and Mariel. Further on, westward of Bahia Honda, the
possession of which might well tempt a maritime enemy of Spain, the
chain of shoals recommences* (* They are here called Bajos de Santa
Isabel y de los Colorados.) and extends without interruption as far as
Cape San Antonio. From that cape to Punta de Piedras and Bahia de
Cortez, the coast is almost precipitous, and does not afford soundings
at any distance; but between Punta de Piedras and Cabo Cruz almost the
whole southern part of Cuba is surrounded with shoals of which the
isle of Pinos is but a portion not covered with water. These shoals
are distinguished on the west by the name of Gardens (Jardines y
Jardinillos); and on the east, by the names Cayo Breton, Cayos de las
doce Leguas, and Bancos de Buena Esperanza.
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