CITIES OF POKTO RICO 183 



east. These all rise in line with the Antillean trend from 

 the same submerged platform, and are probably remnants 

 of onee more-connected masses of land. 

 Dependent on the department of Mayaguez is the island 



of Mona, which gives its name to the broad channel flow- 

 ing between Porto Rico and Santo Domingo. It is sur- 

 rounded by perpendicular cliffs, white in color, about one 

 hundred and seventy feet high, full of holes, and with 

 numbers of grottoes or caves. Mona terminates on the 

 west in a bold headland topped by a huge overhanging 

 rock known to seafarers by the suggestive name of Caigo- 

 o-no-Caigo (" Shall I fall or not? "). The neighboring islet 

 has been christened Monito, the " Little Monkey." 



Vieques and Culebra are known as the Islas de Pasaje, 

 because they lie in the passage between Porto Rico and 

 the Virgin group. Culebra Island, the more northern of 

 these, is two leagues long and one league wide, and has a 

 population of five hundred; its products are principally 

 minor fruits, which are sent mostly to St. Thomas. The 

 island has no running streams, but water is supplied by a 

 public cistern. 



The island of Vieques, known otherwise as Crab Island, 

 about thirteen miles east of Porto Rico, is to that island 

 what the Isle of Pines is to Cuba. The principal settle- 

 ment is located on a bay on the southeast side. The 

 island is twenty-one miles long and six wide. Its land is 

 very fertile and adapted to the cultivation of almost all 

 the fruits and vegetables that grow in the West Indies. 

 Cattle are raised and sugar cultivated. It has a popula- 

 tion of some six thousand. The people are very simple 

 folk and poorly educated. The town Isabel Segunda is 

 on the north, and the port is unsafe in times of Qortherly 

 wind, like all the anchorages on that side; the few ports 

 on the south are better, the besl being Punta Arenas. 

 Not long ago there were two importing and exporting 

 houses on the island of Vieques; but, on account of the 

 long period of drought and the high duties <m imported 



