THE ISLAND OF SANTO DOMINGO 247 



melon- and cushion-shaped cacti of several kinds in all 

 nearly twenty species. The land is now used only for 

 grazing, bui is well situated for irrigation. In fact, the 

 region is a miniature duplication of the American deserts. 



South of the Cibao range, between its slopes and the 

 Caribbean Sea, in the eastern third of the island, is an- 

 other extensive plain, ninety-five miles in Length, known 

 as the plain of Seylo, which slopes from the central 

 mountains to the sea and terminates west of San Domingo 

 city, in which the principal population <>t' the southern 

 half >t' the republic of San Domingo is located. This is 

 a more broken region than the great plain of the north, 

 and is in part open prairie and in part forest. A bell of 

 forest averaging twelve miles in width borders the ter- 

 raced Caribbean coast. The line of juncture between the 

 coast forest and the interior prairies is marked by beauti- 

 ful park-like landscapes, carpeted with green grass ami 

 dotted by clumps of trees. The soil of this plain is grav- 

 elly to the westward, but changes into loams and clays 

 toward the east. 



West of San Domingo city, between it and Azua, for a 

 distance of fifty miles, a broad belt of mountainous coun- 

 try projecting southward from the central range comes 

 down to the shore of the sea. Then comes the Bay of 

 Oeoa, surrounded by a plain from which two narrow val- 

 leys, or rather chains of valleys, lead north-of-west toward 

 the Windward Passage. Around Azua the plain is another 

 desert in the oasis, if we may be permitted to transpose the 

 familiar figure. The whole neighborhood is barren, dry, 

 and thorny. Yet three miles to the southwest the whole 

 character of the country changes so completely that one 

 finds there the besl sugar-estates on the island. 



Northwest of Azua, leading toward the south side of the 



St. Nicolas peninsula, and surrounded by high mountains, 



is the Vale of Constanzia. This somewhat inaccessible 



valley is described in glowing terms by those who have 

 seen it. [ts soil is exceedingly fertile and is covered by a 



