GEOGRAPHY OF SAMAISTA 17 



renamed the island Espanola, later corrupted into Hispaniola. The 

 name Haiti has again come into use as a geographical term along 

 with a growing tendency to refer to that part of the island which 

 is occupied by the Dominican Republic, as Santo Domingo, the same 

 term which liad been given to the capital city of that country. 



The more elevated peaks of Samana Peninsula rise to an elevation 

 of 500 meters above the sea level. Sugarloaf (Le Pilon de Aziicar) is 

 located 6 or 7 kilometers inland from the town of Santa Barbara 

 de Samana; Monte Diablo rises from the water's edge at Punta 

 Balandra, the northern and eastern entrance to Samana Bay, while 

 Loma Las Canitas is at the western end of the peninsula near the 

 town of Sanchez. 



The eastern end of the peninsula is a limestone plateau from which 

 emerge near the coast a number of subterranean streams. These 

 streams are for the most part merely springs and none of them at all 

 approximate the magnificence attributed to them by the unreliable 

 Peter Martyr, who describes them as large enough to admit an ocean- 

 going sailing vessel, and as characterized by falls, whirlpools, and 

 cavernous chambers so large that the mariner entering one of them 

 readily lost himself when shut off from the outer sunlight. 



Between Los Cacaos and the town of Santa Barbara de Samana 

 on the northern shore of Samana Bay, hills of several hundred feet 

 altitude and mountain ridges extend to the water's edge. A trail 

 along the beach eastward fi'om Samana is passable only at low tide ; 

 at other times during the day a journey must be made over the sum- 

 mits of these hills if one wishes to enter the town of Santa Barbara 

 de Samana from the east. It appears that no effort has ever been 

 made to improve roads on the peninsula, with the exception of the 

 road (carretera) from Sanchez to Samana. Trails to points in the 

 interior of the peninsula follow the natural contour of the land and 

 are deeply furrowed with the hoof tracks of horses and bullocks. 

 At Samana a small valley breaks through the hills from the west and 

 is utilized as the roadbed for the carretera from Sanchez to Samana 

 now under construction. 



Sa7nand Bay and delta of Yuna River. — Samana Bay is the 

 drowned extremity of the great Cibao Valley which occupies the flat 

 plain lying between the two axial mountain chains mentioned pre- 

 viously. Traces of recent slight emergence may be seen in the raised 

 lines of sea cutting, raised coral reefs, and sea caves that now stand 

 above tide level. A flat swampy area, known as the Gran Estero, 

 separates the west end of the Samana Peninsula from the mainland 

 of the island. The Gran Estero was formerly one of the distribu- 

 taries of the Yuna River, which traverses the great central plain, 

 the valley of the Cibao. The water channel through the Gran 



