240 cur. A AND POKTO HICO 



these mountains are ever visible; in fact, the Indian name 

 of the Island (Haiti) signifies " mountains." 



It has been my observation that the political disorgan- 

 ization of tropical countries is proportionate to their 

 rugosity. If there is one country better adapted, topo- 

 graphically, for political disunity and revolution than 

 another, by being divided by inaccessible mountain bar- 

 riers into small habitable areas, that country, excepting 

 Colombia, is Santo Domingo. The horizontal area en- 

 circled by its waters is trebled by the vertically of the 

 mountains, and whoever contemplates its political recla- 

 mation must consider these wild mountains, fit only for 

 the habitation of wild men. 



It would be as great an undertaking to describe the 

 mountains of Santo Domingo as to describe the Alps. In 

 a previous chapter a few words have been said concerning 

 their relation to the Great Antillean uplift, of which they 

 are the center and culmination. It is impossible to con- 

 vey to the reader more than a passing idea of these ranges 

 and summits, with their hundreds of bewildering names. 

 They occupy fully four fifths of the island, and render 

 much of it inaccessible. In general, the aspect of the 

 whole island is like the mountainous eastern ends of Ja- 

 maica and Cuba. 



The mountains consist of lofty forest-covered peaks and 

 ridges, like the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and the Sierra 

 Maestra of Cuba, between which lie extensive fertile val- 

 leys, threaded by streams, all of which mountains, val- 

 leys, and streams have a prevalent trend of west-north- 

 west and south-southeast. These rugged mountain ranges 

 may be compared to a series of gigantic ridges and furrows, 

 so disconnected and irregularly arranged that if a slight in- 

 vasion of the sea should take place through subsidence, the 

 whole would resolve itself into four distinct islands, dis- 

 posed from east to west in an irregular but subparallel 

 arrangement. 



The northern fragment, the Monte Cristi range, would 



