248 CUBA AM' PORTO RICO 



deep mantle of guinea-grass. During the "old Spanish 

 time" this is said to have been the richesl region of the 

 island, bu1 it was depopulated by the turmoils of warfare, 

 owing to its proximity to the boundary of the warring re- 

 publics, although the San Domingoans are aow reoccupy- 

 ing it. 



Still south of the Constanzia, separated by high moun- 

 tains, is the great depression of the Laguna Enriquillo, 

 reaching from the Azua plain, on the Caribbean, to Port- 

 au-Prince, on the Windward Passage, and almost severing 

 the Tiburon peninsula of Haiti, with its wild inhabitants, 

 from the remainder of the island. This valley was an 

 oceanic strait in very recent geologic times. 



The island, like all the Antilles, is abundantly watered 

 by streams flowing from the perpetual region of rainfall of 

 the high mountains. Every district has its rivulet or river? 

 while four great mother streams rise in the geographic cen- 

 ter of the island, around the slopes of the Pico del Yaqui, 

 and find their way to the sea in different directions. Two 

 of these, the Manai (or Yuna) and the Yaqui of the north, 

 flow northward to the great plain, upon reaching which 

 they turn east and west respectively in opposite directions, 

 one into the Bay of Sarnana, on the east, and the other into 

 Manzanilla Bay. They are navigable by canoes for long dis- 

 tances. The Artibonite flows from this summit westward 

 through Haiti, of which it is the chief stream, into the Gulf 

 of Gonaives. To the southward runs the San Juan, empty- 

 ing into Barahona Bay, San Domingo. Smaller rivers and 

 their tributaries drain every portion of the island. The 

 most copious of these is the Ozama, flowing into the Carib- 

 bean at the city of San Domingo. One of its tributaries, 

 the Brujuelas, after flowing on the surface to within twelve 

 miles of the coast, plunges into a chasm. 



The only lakes are those of the east-and-west depression, 

 which separates the southern peninsula from the main 

 portion of the island. The largest of these stands at a 

 height of about three hundred feet ; owing to its saltness, 



