THE GREAT ANTILLES 29 



Although a more or less continuous chain of sierras, 

 which may be called the mother range, extends in an 

 axial line from St. Thomas through Porto Eico, Santo 

 Domingo, the northwest cape of Haiti, the Sierra Maestra 

 range of Cuba, and the submerged Misterosa Ridge of the 

 Caribbean, for a distance of a thousand miles, the Antillean 

 Mountains are nq continuous crests like our Appalachians, 

 but are composed of many short overlapping ranges, pre- 

 senting at first sight a serrated appearance similar to the 

 Alps and Pyrenees, with this difference, that they are not 

 covered with snow. 



The island of Santo Domingo is the center and cul- 

 miuation of the entire Antillean uplift. The highest of its 

 peaks, Monte Tina, just south of the center of the island, 

 reaches the respectable altitude of nearly 12,000 feet. The 

 most continuous Santo Domingoan range, the Sierra de 

 Cibao, extends in an east-and-west direction through the 

 center of the republic, and is flanked on the north and south 

 coasts by several short but lofty lateral ranges. This 

 sierra has a south-southeast and north-northwest trend, and 

 culminates in the Pico del Yaqui, 9500 feet high, while 

 many other peaks attain altitudes of 7350 feet. Near the 

 western extremity of this range rises the colossal Nalgo de 

 Maco, whose lofty head, 7000 to 8000 feet, overtops all 

 the mountains in its vicinity. 



In the republic of Haiti the occidental continuation of 

 the Antillean uplifts begins to divide into a number of 

 spreading branches pointing toward the Central American 

 coast. This differentiation is first indicated in the two 

 long peninsulas of Haiti, the northern of which extends 

 toward Cuba and the southern toward Jamaica. The 

 northern branch is the continuation of the main or axial 

 ranges of the general system, and is represented in Cuba 

 by the lofty summits of Sierra Maestra, bordering the 

 Santiago coast of the east end of the island. This moun- 

 tainous crest apparently ceases at Cape Cruz, but in 

 reality it continues westward for eight degrees of Longi- 



