244 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



Another pass, the Sillon de la Viuda, the main gate of 

 passage between the north and south sides of Ban Do- 

 mingo, is reached by difficult paths through deep abysses. 

 A second but rarely frequented pass between the same 

 regions runs for miles along the crest of a narrow range, 

 through woods, mud, and slime, to the grassy slopes of the 

 Savana de la Puerta. Continuous and abundant rainfall 

 at certain seasons transforms the roads into deep mud. 

 Other passes are hardly used, and are scarcely more than 

 paths which climb over the central range. 



In Haiti similar passes connect the various portions of 

 the island. The northern part of the republic has overland 

 communication with the south by a post-road running 

 through the capes of the Plaisance and Limbe, five thou- 

 sand feet high, including, on the Gonave side, the irksome 

 and laborious climb known as Les Escaliers, a steep paved 

 road built like a stairway by the black colonel Durocher. 



The next mountain range of importance is that which 

 constitutes the long and narrow chain running through 

 the southern or Tiburon peninsula of Haiti, which bears 

 several names. This elongated sierra, lying chiefly in 

 Haiti, borders the western half of the south coast, and is 

 separated from the main body of the island by a long 

 chain of lakes extending from the interior indentation of 

 the great Gulf of Gronaives, at Port-au-Prince, eastward to 

 Barahona Bay. The mountain groups comprising this 

 chain, which are practically continuous with one another, 

 beginning on the east, are the Bandruco and the Mandel de 

 los Negros Maron in San Domingo, succeeded in Haiti by 

 the long chain known as the La Selle and De la Hotte 

 Mountains. This range, as a whole, contains some of the 

 highest eminences found in the republic of Haiti, and has 

 near its ends two culminating points known as Monies, 

 2880 feet high, while the average height of the crest is 

 nearly five thousand feet, rising directly above the sea. 

 The Mornes de la Hotte, at the western end, received 

 their name from their resemblance to an inverted ham- 



