CSIKY, GREGOR (1842-1891), Hungarian dramatist, was born on the 8th of December 1842 at Pankota, in the county of Arad. He studied Roman Catholic theology at Pest and Vienna, and was professor in the Priests' College at Temesvár from 1870 to 1878. In the latter year, however, he joined the Evangelical Church, and took up literature. Beginning with novels and works on ecclesiastical history, which met with some recognition, he ultimately devoted himself to writing for the stage. Here his success was immediate. In his Az ellenállhatatlan ("L'Irrésistible"), which obtained a prize from the Hungarian Academy, he showed the distinctive features of his talent-directness, freshness, realistic vigour, and highly individual style. In rapid succession he enriched Magyar literature with realistic genrepictures, such as A Proletárok ("Proletariate "), Buborckok ("Bubbles"), Két szerelem (" Two Loves "), A szégyenlös (" The Bashful"), Athalia, &c., in all of which he seized on one or another feature or type of modern life, dramatizing it with unusual intensity, qualified by chaste and well-balanced diction. Of the latter, his classical studies may, no doubt, be taken as the inspiration, and his translation of Sophocles and Plautus will long rank with the most successful of Magyar translations of the ancient classics. Among the best known of his novels are Arnold, Az Atlasz család ("The Atlas Family"). He died at Budapest on the 19th of November 1891. CSOKONAI, MIHALY VITEZ (1773-1805), Hungarian poet, was born at Debreczen in 1773. Having been educated in his native town, he was appointed while still very young to the professorship of poetry there; but soon after he was deprived of the post on account of the immorality of his conduct. The remaining twelve years of his short life were passed in almost constant wretchedness, and he died in his native town, and in his mother's house, when only thirty-one years of age. Csokonai was a genial and original poet with something of the lyrical fire of Petöfi, and wrote a mock-heroic poem called Dorottya or the Triumph of the Ladies at the Carnival, two or three comedies or farces, and a number of love-poems. Most of his works have been published, with a life, by Schedel (1844-1847). now term Anthozoa to form the group Actinozoa; but little was known of the intimate structure of those remarkable and beautiful forms till the appearance in 1880 of C. Chun's Monograph of the Ctenophora occurring in the Bay of Naples. They may be defined as Coelentera which exhibit both a radial and bilateral symmetry of organs; with a stomodaeum; with a mesenchyma which is partly gelatinous but partly cellular; with eight meridianal rows of vibratile paddles formed of long fused or matted cilia; lacking nematocysts (except in one genus). An example common on the British coasts is furnished by Hormiphora (Cydippe). In outward form this is an egg-shaped ball of clear | jelly, having a mouth at the pointed (oral) pole, and a senseorgan at the broader (abOral pole oral) pole. It possesses CSOMA DE KÖRÖS, ALEXANDER (c. 1790-1842), or, as the name is written in Hungarian, KÖRÖSI CSOMA SÁNDOR, Hungarian traveller and philologist, born about 1790 at Körös in Transylvania, belonged to a noble family which had sunk into poverty. He was educated at Nagy-Enyed and at Göttingen; and, in order to carry out the dream of his youth and discover the origin of his countrymen, he divided his attention between medicine and the Oriental languages. In 1820, Laving received from a friend the promise of an annuity of 100 florins (about £10) to support him during his travels, he set out for the East. He visited Egypt, and made his way to Tibet, where he spent four years in a Buddhist monastery studying the language and the Buddhist literature. To his intense disappointment he soon discovered that he could not thus obtain any assistance in his great object; but, having visited Bengal, his knowledge of Tibetan obtained him employment in the library of the Asiatic Society there, which possessed more than 1000 volumes in that language; and he was afterwards supported by the government while he published a Tibetan-English dictionary and grammar (both of which appeared at Calcutta in 1834). He also contributed several articles on the Tibetan language and literature to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and he published an analysis of the Kah-Gyur, the most important of the Buddhist sacred books. Meanwhile his fame had reached his native country, and procured him a pension from the government, which, with characteristic devotion to learning, he devoted to the purchase of books for Indian libraries. He spent some time in Calcutta, studying Sanskrit and several other languages; but, early in 1842, he commenced his second attempt to discover the origin of the Hungarians, but he died at Darjiling on the 11th of April 1842. An oration was delivered in his honour before the Hungarian Academy by Eötvös, the novelist. CTENOPHORA, in zoology, a class of jelly-fish which were briefly described by Professor T. H. Huxley in 1875 (see ACTINOZOA, Ency. Brit. 9th ed. vol. i.) as united with what we Aboral pole Pg Subt T14 ~ M Subs ...... TS eight meridians (costae) of FIG. 1. Schematic drawing of a costa. to costa. N, Ciliated furrow from sense pole Ts, Boundaries of tentacle-sheath. and fibres, similar to that of jelly-fishes. The sense-organ of the aboral pole is complex, and lies under a dome of fused cilia shaped like an inverted bell-jar; it consists of an otolith, formed of numerous calcareous spheroids, which is supported on four plates of fused cilia termed balancers, but is otherwise free. The ciliated ectoderm below the organ is markedly thickened, and perhaps functionally represents a nerve-ganglion: from it eight ciliated furrows radiate outwards, two passing under each balancer as through an archway, and diverge each to the head of a meridianal costa. These ciliated furrows stain deeply with osmic acid, and nervous impulses are certainly transmitted along Subt Subt Subs Subs FIG. 2.-Schematic drawing of a Cydippid from the aboral pole. (After Chun.) T (centrally), Tentacular canal, and (distally) tentacle. them. Locomotion is termed neuro-muscular cells), characteristic of , Position of testes. other Coelentera, are 9, Position of ovaries; other letters as not to be found in this in fig. 1. The stomodaeum lies in the sagittal plane, the funnel and tentacles group. On the other in the transverse or tentacular plane. hand there are wellmarked muscle fibres in definite layers, derived from special mesoblastic cells in the embryo, which are embedded in a jelly; these in their origin and arrangement are quite comparable to the mesoderm of Triploblastica, and, although the muscle-cells of some jelly-fish exhibit a somewhat similar condition, nothing so highly specialized as the mesenchyme of Ctenophora occurs in any other Coelenterate. The nematocysts being nearly absent from their group, their chief function is carried out by adhesive lasso-cells. The Ctenophora are classified as follows: Subclass i. Tentaculata, Order 1. CYDIPPIDEA, Hormiphora. ii. Nuda, 2. LOBATA, 3. CESTOIDEA, Deiopea. contents. The micromeres give rise to the ectoderm; each of the sixteen macromeres, after budding off a small mesoblast cell, passes on as endoderm. A gastrula is established by a mixed process of embole and epibole. The mesoblast cells travel to the aboral pole of the embryo, and there form a cross-shaped mass, the arms of which lie in the sagittal and transverse planes (perradii). There can be but little question of the propriety of including Ctenophora among the Coelentera. The undivided coelenteron (gastro-vascular system) which constitutes the sole cavity of the body, the largely radial symmetry, the presence of endo Pg... FIG. 3.-Schematic Drawing of Cestus. cular costae. Subt, Branch of the subten- Subs Subt Subt (After Chun.) Pg, Continuation of the paragastric canal at right angles to its original direction along the lower edge of the riband. At the right-hand end the last two are seen to unite with the subsagittal canal. dermal generative organs on the coelenteric canals, the subepithelial nerve-plexus, the mesogloea-like matrix of the body— all these features indicate affinity to other Coelentera, but, as has been stated in the article under that title, the relation is by no means close. At what period the Ctenophora branched off from the line of descent, which culminated in the Hydromedusae and Scyphozoa of to-day, is not clear, but it is practically certain that they did so before the point of divergence of these two groups from one another. The peculiar sense-organ, the specialization of the cilia into paddles with the corresponding modifications of the coelenteron, the anatomy and position of the tentacles, and, above all, the character and mode of formation of the mesenchyme, separate them widely from other Coelentera. The last-named character, however, combined with the discovery of two remarkable organisms, Coelo plana and Ctenoplana, has suggested affinity to the flatThe Tentaculata, as the name implies, may be recognized by the worms termed Turbellaria. Ctenoplana, presence of tentacles of some sort. The CYDIPPIDEA are generally the best known of these, has recently been spherical or ovoid, with two long retrusible pinnate tentacles: the redescribed by A. Willey (Quart. Journ. meridianal and paragastric canals end blindly. An example of Micr. Sci. xxxix., 1896). It is flattened these has already been briefly described. The LOBATA are of the same general type as the first Order, except for the presence of four along the axis which unites sense-organ circumoral auricles (processes of the subtransverse costae) and of and mouth, so as to give it a dorsal a pair of sagittal outgrowths or lobes, on to which the subsagittal (aboral) surface, and a ventral (oral) costae are continued. Small accessory tentacles lie in grooves, but surface on which it frequently creeps. Its there is no tentacular pouch; the meridianal vessels anastomose in the lobes. In the CESTOIDEA the body is compressed in the transcostae are very short, and retrusible; verse plane, elongated in the sagittal plane, so as to become riband- its two tentacles are pinnate and are also like: the subtransverse costae are greatly reduced, the subsagittal retrusible. Two crescentic rows of ciliated costae extend along the aboral edge of the riband. The subsagittal papillae lie in the transverse plane on each canals lie immediately below their costae aborally, but continuations of the subtransverse canals round down the middle of the riband, side of the sense-organ. The coelenteron Drawing of Beröe. and at its end unite, not only with the subsagittal but also with the exhibits six lobes, two of which Willey (After Chun.) paragastric canals which run along the oral edge of the riband. identifies with the stomodaeum of other The tentacular bases and pouches are present, but there is no main Ctenophora; the other four give rise to a system of anastentacle as in Cydippidea; fine accessory tentacles lie in four grooves along the oral edge. The subclass Nuda have no tentacles of any tomosing canals such as are found in Beroë and Polyclad kind; they are conical or ovoid, with a capacious stomodaeum like Turbellaria. An aboral vessel embraces the sense-organ, but the cavity of a thimble. There is a coelenteric network formed by has no external opening. Ctenoplana is obviously a Ctenoanastomoses of the meridianal and paragastric canals all over the phoran flattened and of a creeping habit. Coelo plana is of body. The embryology of Callianira has been worked out by E. Mechni- similar form and habit, with two Ctenophoran tentacles: it kov. Segmentation is complete and unequal, producing macromeres has no costae, but is uniformly ciliated. These two forms at and micromeres marked by differences in the size and in yolk-least indicate a possible stepping-stone from Ctenophora to FIG. 4.-Schematic Ctesiphon, he built up Seleucia again under the name of Veh- Turbellaria, that is to say, from diploblastic to triploblastic | founded the Sassanian empire (226), and fixed his residence at Metazoa. By themselves they would present no very weighty argument for this line of descent from two-layered to threelayered forms, but the coincidences which occur in the development of Ctenophora and Turbellaria,-the methods of segmentation and gastrulation, of the separation of the mesoblast cells, and of mesenchyme formation,-together with the marked similarity of the adult mesenchyme in the two groups, have led many to accept this pedigree. In his Monograph on the Polyclad Turbellaria of the Bay of Naples, A. Lang regards a Turbellarian, so to say, as a Ctenophora, in which the sensory pole has rotated forwards in the sagittal plane through 90° as regards the original oral-aboral axis, a rotation which actually occurs in the development of Thysanozoon (Müller's larva); and he sees, in the eight lappets of the preoral ciliated ring of such a larva, the rudiments of the costal plates. According to his view, a simple early Turbellarian larva, such as that of Stylochus, most nearly represents for us to-day that ancestor from which Ctenophora and Turbellaria are alike derived. For details of this brilliant theory, the reader is referred to the original monograph. LITERATURE.-G. C. Bourne, " The Ctenophora," in Ray Lankester's Treatise on Zoology (1900), where a bibliography is given; G. Curreri, "Osservazioni sui ctenofori," Boll. Soc. Zool. Ital. (2), i. pp. 190-193 et ii. pp. 58-76; A. Garbe, "Untersuchungen über die Entstehung der Geschlechtsorgane bei den Ctenophoren.," Zeitschr. Wiss. Zool. Ixix. pp. 472-491; K. C. Schneider, Lehrbuch der vergleich. Histologie (1902). (G. H. Fo.) CTESIAS, of Cnidus in Caria, Greek physician and historian, flourished in the 5th century B.C. In early life he was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he accompanied (401) on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger. Ctesias was the author of treatises on rivers, and on the Persian revenues, of an account of India (which is of value as recording the beliefs of the Persians about India), and of a history of Assyria and Persia in 23 books, called Persica, written in opposition to Herodotus in the Ionic dialect, and professedly founded on the Persian royal archives. The first six books treated of the history of Assyria and Babylon to the foundation of the Persian empire; the remaining seventeen went down to the year 398. Of the two histories we possess abridgments by Photius, and fragments are preserved in Athenaeus, Plutarch and especially Diodorus Siculus, whose second book is mainly from Ctesias. As to the worth of the Persica there has been much controversy, both in ancient and modern times. Being based upon Persian authorities, it was naturally looked upon with suspicion by the Greeks and censured as untrustworthy. For an estimate of Ctesias as a historian see G. Rawlinson's Herodotus, i. 71-74; also the edition of the fragments of the Persica by J. Gilmore (1888, with introduction and notes and list of authorities). CTESIPHON, a large village on the left bank of the Tigris, opposite to Seleucia, of which it formed a suburb, about 25 m. below Bagdad. It is first mentioned in the year 220 by Polybius V. 45. 4. When the Parthian Arsacids had conquered the lands east of the Euphrates in 129 B.C., they established their winter residence in Ctesiphon. They dared not stay in Seleucia, as this city, the most populous town of western Asia, always maintained her Greek self-government and a strong feeling of independence, which made her incline to the west whenever a Roman army attacked the Parthians. The Arsacids also were afraid of destroying the wealth and commerce of Seleucia, if they entered it with their large retinue of barbarian officials and soldiers (Strabo xvi. 743, Plin. vi. 122, cf. Joseph. Ant. xviii. 9, 2). From this time Ctesiphon increased in size, and many splendid buildings rose; it had the outward appearance of a large town, although it was by its constitution only a village. From A.D. 36-43 Seleucia was in rebellion against the Parthians till at last it was forced by King Vardanes to yield. It is very probable that Vardanes now tried to put Ctesiphon in its place; therefore he is called founder of Ctesiphon by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6. 23), where King Pacorus (78-110) is said to have increased its inhabitants and built its walls. Seleucia was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 164. When Ardashir I. CUBA (the aboriginal name), a republic, the largest and most populous of the West India Islands, included between the meridians of 74° 7′ and 84° 57′ W. longitude and (roughly) the parallels of 19° 48′ and 23° 13′ N. latitude. It divides the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico into two passages of nearly equal width, the Strait of Florida, about 110 m. wide between Capes Hicacos in Cuba and Arenas in Florida (Key West being a little over 100 m. from Havana); and the Yucatan Channel, about 130 m. wide between Capes San Antonio and Catoche. On the N.E., E. and S.E., narrower channels separate it from the Bahamas, Haiti (50 m.) and Jamaica (85 m.). In 1908, by the opening of a railway along the Florida Keys, the time of passage by water between Cuba and the United States was reduced to a few hours. The island is long and narrow, somewhat in the form of an irregular crescent, convex toward the N. It has a decided pitch to the S. Its length from Cape Maisí to Cape San Antonio along a medial line is about 730 m.; its breadth, which averages about 50 m., ranges from a maximum of 160 m. to a minimum of about 22 m. The total area is estimated at 41,634 sq. m. without the surrounding keys and the Isle of Pines (area about 1180 sq. m.), and including these is approximately 44,164. The geography of the island is still very imperfectly known, and all figures are approximate only. The coast line, including larger bays, but excluding reefs, islets, keys and all minute sinuosities, is about 2500 m. in length. The N. littoral is characterized by bluffs, which grow higher and higher toward the east, rising to 600 ft. at Cape Maisí. They are marked by distinct terraces. The southern coast near Cape Maisí is low and sandy. From Guantánamo to Santiago it rises in high escarpments, and W. of Santiago, where the Sierra Maestra runs close to the sea, there is a very high abrupt shore. To the W. of Manzanillo it sinks again, and throughout most of the remaining distance to Cape San Antonio is low, with a sandy or marshy littoral; at places sand hills fringe the shore; near Trinidad there are hills of considerable height; and the coast becomes high and rugged W. of Point Fisga, in the province of Pinar del Rio. On both the N. and the S. side of the island there are long chains of islets and reefs and coral keys (of which it is estimated there are 1300), which limit access to probably half of the coast, and on the N. render navigation difficult and dangerous. On the S. they are covered with mangroves. A large part of the southern littoral is subject to overflow, and much more of it is permanently marshy. The Zapata Swamp near Cienfuegos is 600 sq. m. in area; other large swamps are the Majaguillar, E. of Cárdenas, and the Ciénaga del Buey, S. of the Cauto river. The Isle of Pines in its northern part is hilly and wooded; in its southern part, very low, level and | rather barren; a tidal swamp almost cuts the island in two. &C.S.Antonio Yucatan Channel 8d damn! How bato 82 by Longitude West 80° of Greenwich 11 i 78el is eli bas 176 A remarkable feature of the Cuban coast is the number of excellent anchorages, roadsteads and harbours. On the N. shore, beginning at the W., Bahía Honda, Havana, Matanzas, Cardenas, Nuevitas and Nipe; and on the S. shore running westward Guantánamo, Santiago and Cienfuegos, are harbours of the first class, several of them among the best of the world. Mariel, Cabañas, Banes, Sagua la Grande and Baracoa on the N., and Manzanillo, Santa Cruz, Batabanó and Trinidad on the S. are also excellent ports or anchorages. The peculiar pouch-shape of almost all the harbours named (Matanzas being a marked exception) greatly increases their security and defensibility. These pouch harbours are probably "drowned" drainage basins. The number of small bays that can be utilized for coast trade traffic is extraordinary. 66 In popular language the different portions of the island are distinguished as the Vuelta Abajo ("lower turn "), W. of Havana; the Vuelta Arriba (" upper turn "), E. of Havana to CienfuegosVuelta Abajo and Vuelta Arriba are also used colloquially at any point in the island to mean east "and" west "-Las Cinco Villas-i.e. Villa Clara, Trinidad, Remedios, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus-between Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus; and Tierra Adentro, referring to the region between Cienfuegos and Bayamo. These names are extremely common. The province and city of Puerto Príncipe are officially known as Camagüey, their original Indian name, which has practically supplanted the Spanish name in local usage. Five topographic divisions of the island are fairly marked. Santiago (now Oriente) province is high and mountainous. Camagüey is characterized by rolling, open plains, slightly broken, especially in the W., by low mountains. The E. part of Santa Clara province is decidedly rough and broken. The W. part, with the provinces of Matanzas and Havana, is flat and rolling, with occasional hills a few hundred feet high. Finally, Pinar del Rio is dominated by a prominent mountain range and by outlying piedmont hills and mesas. There are mountains in Cuba from one end of the island to the other, but they are not derived from any central mass and are not continuous. As just indicated there are three distinctively mountainous districts, various minor groups lying outside these. The three main systems are known in Cuba as the occidental, central and oriental. The first, the Organ mountains, in Pinar del Rio, rises in a sandy, marshy region near Cape San Antonio. The crest runs near the N. shore, leaving various flanking spurs and foothills, and a coastal plain which at its greatest breadth on the S. is some 20 m. wide. The plain on the N. is narrower and higher. The southern slope is smooth, and abounds in creeks and rivers. The portion of the southern plain between the bays of Cortés and Majana is the most famous portion of the Vuelta Abajo tobacco region. The mountain range is capriciously broken at points, especially near Bejucal. The highest part is the Pan de Guajaibón, near Bahía Honda, at the W. end of the chain; its altitude has been variously estimated from 2500 to 1950 ft. The central system has two wings, one approaching the N. coast, the other covering the island between Sancti Spiritus and Santa Clara. It comprehends a number of independent groups. The highest point, the Pico Potrerillo, is about 2900 ft. in altitude. The summits are generally well rounded, while the lower slopes are often steep. Frequent broad intervals of low upland or low level plain extend from sea to sea between and around the mountains. Near the coast runs a continuous belt of plantations, while grazing, tobacco and general farm lands cover the lower slopes of the hills, and virgin forests much of the uplands and mountains. The oriental mountain region includes the province of Oriente and a portion of Camagüey. In extent, in altitude, in mass, in complexity and in geological interest, it is much the most important of the three systems. Almost all the mountains are very bold. They are imperfectly known. There are two main ranges, the Sierra Maestra, and a line of various groups along the N. shore. The former runs from Cape Santa Cruz eastward along the coast some 125 m. to beyond the river Baconao. The Sierra de Cobre, a part of the system in the vicinity of Santiago, has a general elevation of about 3000 ft. Monte Turquino, 7700-8320 ft. in altitude, is the highest peak of the island. Gran Piedra rises more than 5200 ft., the Ojo del Toro more than 3300, the Anvil de Baracoa is somewhat lower, and Pan de Matanzas is about 1267 ft. The western portions of the range rise abruptly from the ocean, forming a bold and beautiful coast. A multitude of ravines and gullies, filled with torrential streams or dry, according to the season of the year, and characterized by many beautiful cascades, seam the narrow coastal plain and the flanks of the mountains. The spurs of the central range are a highly intricate complex, covered with dense forests of superb woods. Many points are inaccessible, and the scenery is wild in the extreme. The mountains beyond Guantánamo are locally known by a variety of names, though topographically a continuation of the Sierra Maestra. The same is true of the chains that coalesce with these near Cape Maisí and diverge northwesterly along the N. coast of the island. The general character of this northern marginal system is much the same as that of the southern, save that the range is much less period. They are frequently very much disturbed and often strongly folded. Around the coast there is a raised shelf of limestone which was undoubtedly a coral reef. But it is of recent date and does not attain an elevation of more than 40 or 50 ft. continuous. A dozen or more groups from Nipe in the E. to the | them indicate that they belong for the most part to the Oligocene coast N. of Camagüey in the W. are known only by individual names. The range near Baracoa is entremely wild and broken. The region between the lines of the two coastal systems is a much dissected plateau, imperfectly explored. The Cauto river, the only one flowing E. or W. and the largest of Cuba, flows through it westward to the southern coast near Manzanillo. The scenery in the oriental portion of the island is very beautiful, with wild mountains and tropical forests. In the central part there are extensive prairies. In the west there are swelling hills and gentle valleys, with the royal palm the dominating tree. The valley of the Yumurí, near Matanzas, a small circular basin crossed by a river that issues through a glen to the sea, is perhaps the most beautiful in Cuba. A very peculiar feature of Cuba is the abundance of caverns in the limestone deposits that underlie much of the island's surface. The caves of Cotilla near Havana, of Bellamar near Matanzas, of Monte Libano near Guantánamo, and those of San Juan de los Remedios, are the best known, but there are scores of others. Many streams are "disappearing," part of their course being through underground tunnels. Thus the Rio San Antonio suddenly disappears near San Antonio de los Baños; the cascades of the Jatibónico del Norte disappear and reappear in a surprising manner; the Moa cascade (near Guantánamo) drops 300 ft. into a cavern and its waters later reissue from the earth; the Jojo river disappears in a great "sink " and later issues with violent current at the edge of the sea. The springs of fresh water that bubble up among the keys of the S. coast are also supposedly the outlets of underground streams. The number of rivers is very great, but almost without exception their courses are normal to the coast, and they are so short as to be of but slight importance. The Cauto river in Oriente province is exceptional; it is 250 m. long, and navigable by small vessels for about 75 m. Inside the bar at its mouth (formed by a storm in 1616) ships of 200 tons can still ascend to Cauto. In Camagüey province the Jatibónico del Sur; in Oriente the Salado, a branch of the Cauto; in Santa Clara the Sagua la Grande (which is navigable for some 20 m. and has an important traffic), and the Damuji; in Matanzas, the Canimar; and in Pinar del Rio the Cuyaguateje, are important streams. The water-parting in the four central provinces is very indefinite. There are few river valleys that are noteworthy-those of the Yumurí, the Trinidad and the Güines. At Guantánamo and Trinidad are other valleys, and between Mariel and Havana is the fine valley of Ariguanabo. Of lakes, there are a few on the coast, and a very few in the mountains. The finest is Lake Ariguanabo, near Havana, 6 sq. m. in area. Of the almost innumerable river cascades, those of the Sierra Maestra Mountains, and in particular the Moa cascade, have already been mentioned. The Guamá cascade in Oriente province and the Hanabanilla Fall near Cienfuegos (each more than 300 ft. high), the Rosario Fall in Pinar del Rio, and the Almendares cascade near Havana, may also be mentioned. Geology. The foundation of the island is formed of metamorphic and igneous rocks, which appear in the Sierra Maestra and are exposed in other parts of the island wherever the comparatively thin covering of later beds has been worn away. A more or less continuous band of serpentine belonging to this series forms the principal watershed, although it nowhere rises to any great height. It is in this band that the greater part of the mineral wealth of Cuba is situated. These ancient rocks have hitherto yielded no fossils and their age is therefore uncertain, but they are probably pre-Cretaceous at least. Fossiliferous Cretaceous limestones containing Rudistes have been found in several parts of the island (Santiago de los Baños, Santa Clara province, &c.). At the base there is often an arkose, composed largely of fragments of serpentine and granite derived from the ancient floor. At Esperanza and other places in the Santa Clara province, bituminous plant-bearing beds occur beneath the Tertiary limestones, and at Baracoa a Radiolarian earth occupies a similar position. The latter, like the similar deposits in other West Indian islands, is probably of Oligocene age. It is the Tertiary limestones which form the predominant feature in the geology of Cuba. Although they do not exceed 1000 ft. in thickness, they probably at one time covered the whole island except the summits of the Sierra Maestra, where they have been observed, resting upon the older rocks, up to a height of 2300 ft. They contain corals, but are not coral reefs. The shells which have been found in Minerals are fairly abundant in number, but few are present in sufficient quantity to be industrially important. Traditions of gold but these metals are in fact extremely rare. and silver, dating from the time of the Spanish conquest, still endure, Oriente province is distinctively the mineral province of the island. Large copper deposits of peculiar richness occur here in the Sierra de Cobre, near the city of Santiago; and both iron and manganese are abundant. Besides the deposits in Oriente province, iron is known to exist in considerable amount in Camagüey and Santa Clara, and copper in Camagüey and Pinar del Rio provinces. The iron ores mined at Daiquiri near Santiago are mainly rich hematites running above 60% of iron, with very little sulphur or phosphorus admixture. The copper deposits are mainly in well-marked fracture planes in serpentine; the ore is pyrrhotite, with or without chalcopyrite. Manganese occurs especially along the coast between Santiago and Manzanillo; the best ores run above 50%. Chromium and a number of other rare minerals are known to exist, but probably not in commercially available quantities. Bituminous products of every grade, from clear translucent oils resembling petroleum and refined naphtha, to lignite-like substances, occur in all parts of the island. Much of the bituminous deposits is on the dividing line between asphalt and coal. There is an endless building material, the greatest part being a soft coralline limestone. amount of stone, very little of which is hard enough to be good for The best buildings in Havana are constructed of a very rich white limestone, soft and readily worked when fresh, but hardening and There are extensive and valuable slightly darkening with age. deposits of beautiful marbles in the Isle of Pines, and lesser ones near Santiago. The Organ Mountains contain a hard blue limestone; and sandstones occur on the N. coast of Pinar del Rio province. Clays of all qualities and colours abound. Mineral waters, though not yet important in trade, are extremely abundant, and a score of places in Cuba and the Isle of Pines are already known as health resorts. Those near San Diego, Guanabacoa and Santa Maria del Rosario (near Havana) and Madruga (near Güines) are the best known. deposits The soil of the island is almost wholly of modern formation, mainly alluvial, with superficial limestones as another prominent feature. In the original formation of the island volcanic disturbances and coral growth played some part; but there are only very slight superficial evidences in the island of former volcanic activity. Noteworthy earthquakes are rare. They have been most common in Oriente province. Those of 1776, 1842 and 1852 were particularly destructive, and of earlier ones those of 1551 and 1624 at Bayamo and of 1578 and 1678 at Santiago. Every year there are seismic disturbances, and though Santiago is the point of most frequent visitation, they occur in all parts of the island, in 1880 affecting the entire western end. Notable seismic disturbances in Cuba have coincided with similar activity in Central America so often as to make some connexion apparent. 1 Flora. The tropical heat and humidity of Cuba make possible a flora of splendid richness. All the characteristic species of the West Indies, the Central American and Mexican and southern Florida seaboard, and nearly all the large trees of the Mexican tropic belt, are embraced in it. As many as 3350 native flowering species were catalogued in 1876. The total number of species of the island flora was estimated in 1892 by a writer in the Revista Cubana (vol. this number had then been gathered into a herbarium, and all parts xv. pp. 5-16) to be between 5000 and 6000, but hardly one-third of of the island had not then been explored. It was estimated officially in 1904 that the wooded lands of the island comprised 3,628,434 acres, of which one-third were in Oriente province, another third in Camagüey, and hardly any in Havana province. Much of this area is of primeval forest; somewhat more than a third of the total, belonging to the government, was opened to sale (and speculative exspoliation) in 1904. The woods are so dense over large districts as to be impenetrable, except by cutting a path foot by foot through the close network of vines and undergrowth. The jagüey (Ficus sp.), which stifles in its giant coils the greatest trees of the forest, and the copei (Clusia rosea) are remarkable parasitic lianas. Of the palm there are more than thirty species. The royal palm is the most characteristic tree of Cuba. It attains a height of from 50 to 75 ft., and sometimes of more than 100 ft. Alone, or in groups, or in long aisles, towering above the plantations or its fellow trees of the forest, its beautiful crest dominates every landscape. Every portion, from its roots to its leaves, serves some useful purpose. From it the native draws lumber for his hut, utensils for his kitchen, thatch for his roof, medicines, preserved delicacies, and a long list of other articles. The corojo palm (Cocos crispa) rivals the royal palm in beauty and utility; oil, sugar, drink and wood are derived from it. The coco palm (Cocos nucifera) is also put to varied uses. The mango is planted with the royal palm along the avenues of the plantations. The beautiful ceiba (Bombax ceiba L., Ceiba pentandra) or silk cotton tree is the giant of the Cuban forests; it often grows to a height of 100 to 150 ft. with enormous girth. The royal piñon (Erythrina |