'24:2 ( i i;a and PORTO KICO 



Passage, arc hundreds of these sun units, continuing oul to 

 the very end of the Gonave peninsula. On the boundary 

 between the two republics are at leasi eighl high peaks, 

 forming a rough, wild country, inhabited by la valli&re, or 



wild maroons of Haiti. 



Westward in Haiti is the mountain on which the des- 

 potic negro king Christophe erected the marvelous for- 

 tress of La Ferriere, at an altitude of 2560 feet. This 

 mountain is the Bonnet-a-la-Eveque, the " Bishop's Cap." 

 Still westward these mountains continue out to the very 

 end of the rugged St. Nicolas peninsula, near which is the 

 Morne d'Or (3962 feet), which has been alleged, without 

 reason, to be an extinct volcano ; while in the vicinity are 

 many other interesting mountains belonging to the same 

 range. The eastern part of this central range has a thou-' 

 sand names for its many spurs and lateral ranges. From 

 the Pico del Yaqui, which, although not the highest moun- 

 tain of the island, is nevertheless the center of its orographic 

 system, two great rivers bearing its name flow to the north 

 and south coasts. Several secondary ranges here branch 

 off to the north. On the south the mountains pass gradu- 

 ally into rolling hills, between which are many small val- 

 leys supporting a poor population. 



The mountains of the Cibao range in general are high 

 and closely crowded summits, rising from sinuously curv- 

 ing crest-lines, consisting of old igneous rocks protruding 

 through the disturbed sedimentary strata, and constituting 

 an irregularly shaped mass, often traversing the main 

 axis in the central portion of the range, and extending 

 with it through the western part into the Haitian re- 

 public. 



The base of the mountain of Dondon is granite, on which 

 rest limestones and sandstones, conglomerates, and, finally, 

 a sheet of the universal white limestone of the Antilles. 

 These rocks are intensely folded and plicated. In the 

 central portion of these mountains are vast rocky canons, 

 penetrated only by hunters of the wild hog. One of these 



