Caribbean Sea

an arm of the Atlantic, lying between the West Indies and the coasts of Central and South America. The Caribbean is larger than the Gulf of Mexico. Its basin comprises 750,000 square miles--one-fourth as large as the United States. The basin is a huge mountain cup. The coasts are not continuous, but they are everywhere mountainous, The water varies in depth from shallows to abysses. The floor of the sea is uneven. Bartlett Trough is described as a chasm a few miles wide but hundreds of miles in length and three miles deep. An equatorial current enters the Caribbean Sea through the passages of the Windward Islands and, continuing westward, sweeps through Yucatan Channel into the Gulf of Mexico. The trade winds bring tropical moisture that falls--literally falls--in sheets that the inhabitants of more temperate climes know not of. Destructive tempests are not infrequent. The temperature is "modified by the trade winds," but to the northern traveler the navigation of the Caribbean is associated with much torrid discomfort. The name is derived from the Caribs, an Indian family yet dwelling in places on the coasts and islands of this great sea.