On the southern coast of the island of Cuba, south-west of the Port of Batabano in the gulf of Xagua, a few miles from the coast, springs of fresh water gush from the bed of the ocean probably under the influence of hydrostatic pressure, and rise through the midst of the salt water. They issue forth with such force that boats are cautious in approaching this locality, which has an ill repute on account of the high cross sea thus caused. Trading vessels sailing along the coast and not disposed to land, sometimes visit these springs to take in a supply of fresh water, which is thus obtained in the open sea. The greater the depth from which the water is taken, the fresher it is found to be. The “river cow,” Trichecus manati, which does not remain habitually in salt water, is often killed here. This remarkable phenomenon of fresh springs issuing from the sea has been most carefully examined by a friend of mine, Don Francisco Lemaur, who made a trigonometrical survey of the Bay of Xagua. I have been farther to the South in the group of islands called the Jardines del Rey, (the King’s Gardens), making astronomical observations for latitude and longitude; but I have never been at Xagua itself. [55] p. 210.--“_The ancient site of a rocky bulwark._” Columbus, whose unwearied spirit of observation exerted itself in every direction, propounds in his letters to the Spanish monarchs a geognostical hypothesis respecting the forms of the larger Antilles. Having his mind deeply impressed with the strength of the East and West Equinoctial current, he ascribes to it the breaking up of the group of the smaller West Indian islands, and the singularly lengthened configuration of the southern coasts of Porto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica, which all follow almost exactly the direction of parallels of latitude. On his third voyage (from the end of May 1498 to the end of November 1500), in which, from the Boca del Drago to the Island of Margarita, and afterwards from that island to Haiti, he felt the whole force of the Equinoctial current, “that movement of the waters which is in accordance or conformity with the movement of the heavens--movimiento de los cielos,” he says expressly that the Island of Trinidad had been torn from the mainland by the violence of the current. He alludes to a chart which he sends to the monarchs,--a “pintura de la tierra” by himself, which is often referred to in the celebrated lawsuit against Don Diego Colon respecting the rights of the Admiral. “Es la carta de marear y figura que hizo el Almirante señalando los rumbos y vientos por los quales vino á Paria, que dicen parte del Asia”, (Navarrete Viages y Descubrimientos que hiciéron por mar los Españoles, T. i. p. 253 and 260; T. iii. p. 539 and 587.) [56] p. 210.--“_Over the snow-covered Paropanisus._”