THE GREAT ANTILLES 31 



the waters lying between Cuba and Jamaica, giving a total 

 relief of 26,000 feet. In fact, the configuration of these 

 ranges is the most precipitous of the known world, exceed- 

 ing that of the Himalayas, which would be comparable with 

 them were their bases surrounded by oceanic waters to a 

 depth of three to five miles. 



Another peculiarity of these mountains is the fact that 

 they are not made up of untillable and barren rocks, like 

 most other great ranges of the world, but are largely com- 

 posed of unconsolidated clays and pebble, which yield a 

 wealth of vegetal products to their very summits. These 

 higher summits, though differing in origin, are similar in 

 composition to the mantle of glacial soils which constitutes 

 the tillable lands of the northern United States. They are 

 the fruit- and coffee-lands of unlimited possibilities. 



The Antilles are not exclusively mountainous. There 

 are numerous valleys, plains, and plateaus, often of wide 

 extent and great fertility, which will be further mentioned 

 in our descriptions of the various islands. As a rule, they 

 are densely wooded and copiously watered to the very 

 summits of the mountains. Many of the streams are riv- 

 ers of great beauty, and in a few instances are navigable 

 for short distances. Some of these, like the Cauto and 

 Sagua of Cuba, and the Yaqui, Neyba, and Artibonite of 

 Santo Domingo, are of great length and volume. 



The seaboard of the Antilles is in some respects quite 

 different from that of the remainder of the islands, being 

 characterized, in general, by an abundance of good harbors, 

 affording excellent anchorage, which are lacking in many 

 of the smaller islands. The character of the coast is vari- 

 able. Large stretches are composed of a low shelf of ele- 

 vated reef rock, often as hard as adamant, and standing 

 less than twenty feet above the sea, known as seborucco, 

 which extends back a few yards against a rugged back- 

 coast border; in other places the land border consists of 

 high bluffs of limestone, with or without a few feet of 

 shelving beach at its base. Near the "Windward Passage 

 there is a series of these bluffs rising GOO feet in terrace- 



