THE ISLAND OF CUBA 39 



past by the Captains-General to make reconnaissances 

 avow in their reports that the lack of habitation in the 

 greater part of the territory, the impenetrability of the 

 forests, the insurmountable Cordilleras, and the scarcity 

 of means and time have prevented them from carrying 

 out successfully the mapping of the diverse ramifications 

 of the mountains, the tracing out of their salients and 

 valleys, and the determination of their extent, altitude, 

 and geologic structure. It seems that their observations 

 did not extend east of the seventieth meridian, where 

 the most interesting part of the island, from a scientific 

 point of view, is found. Furthermore, the results of 

 such investigations as were made were but imperfectly 

 published in fragments. 



In a previous chapter we have set forth the elementary 

 arrangement of the Antillean Mountains, of which those 

 of Cuba are a part. The higher eminences are true moun- 

 tains of deformation, composed of disturbed sedimentary 

 rocks with igneous intrusions. The mountains of this 

 elass do not constitute a continuous axial backbone to the 

 island, as popularly supposed, but, so far as they can be 

 classified at all, occur in three distinct and independent 

 groups, known as the eastern, western, and central, re- 

 spectively, the trends of which overlap one another en 

 echelon. 



The highest of the well-defined ranges is the narrow, 

 precipitous Sierra Maestra, which dominates the straight 

 east-and-west coast of Santiago de Cuba. This range 

 extends through two and one half degrees of longitude, 

 from Guantanamo to Cape Cruz, and constitutes an inde- 

 pendent feature, topographically different from the other 

 mountains of Cuba. Geographically it belongs in the 

 same class with the higher summits of Haiti, collectively 

 making the master range of the Great Antilles. This 

 range is very precipitous and closely hugs the coast-line. 

 Its crests culminate in the Pico del Turquino, which rises 

 very abruptly from the sea to a height estimated to lie 8600 



