The Bahama Banks appear to consist of a slab superimposed on the same surface which forms the Blake Plateau. The Blake Escarpment merges with the lower part of the eastern slope of the Bahamas. The slopes of the Bahamas are precipitous; gradients are of the order of 1:4 to 1:8. Vertical cliffs, which lie just below the 50-fathom curve, have been reported by lead soundings (Armstrong, 1953). The Tongue of the Ocean and the Northeast and Northwest Providence channels form a network of submarine canyons (Hess, 1933). The floor of this canyon system has a continuous down-slope gradient to the floor of the Blake-Bahama Basin. Sediment cores from the floor of the Blake-Bahama Basin (2525 fathoms) (Ericson, Ewing, and Heezen, 1952) contained thick (1-3 m) beds of graded calcareous sand. The steep slopes of the Bahamas are generally rocky, and cores here reveal a variety of Tertiary and Cretaceous sediments. Exuma Sound also is linked by submarine canyons to the Blake-Bahama Basin. The graded calcareous sands of the Blake-Bahama Basin were probably carried through this submarine canyon system by turbidity currents. The topographic benches of Exuma Sound have been described by Lee (1951). The southeastern Bahamas from Great Inagua to Navidad Bank consist of more numerous isolated banks and greater expanses of ocean floor in the depth range of 1700-2400 fathoms. The basins behind the southern Bahamas lie below the sill depth between the line of banks. Thus an abyssal plain lies entrapped in the Hispaniola-Caicos Channel and the southeastern portion of the Old Bahama Channel. Profile W-29 (Pl. 24) shows much irregular relief between 1000 and 1500 fathoms.