18 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Estero from the bay to the Atlantic Ocean on the north was formerly 

 siiiRciently deep for purposes of navigation, but has become partly 

 closed through uplift and with silt carried down by the Yuna River. 

 Charlevoix's map of Haiti, published in Paris, as late as 1730, still 

 shows a water channel extending from Samana Bay to the Atlantic 

 Ocean on the north coast. 



The town of Sanchez, the terminus of the Samana-Santiago Rail- 

 road and a port of entry, is located at a distance from deep water 

 due to the silting in from the Yuna River. Large vessels are unable 

 to dock and must load and unload cargo from lighters. The bay as 

 a whole has a depth great enough to admit large liners, but not to 

 tlie head of the bay. Shoal water at the mouth of the bay limits 

 passage to a channel near the northern shore. The bay has an aver- 

 age width of 15 to 20 kilometers, while the distance from Punta Bal- 

 landra, the bold, rocky headland at the entrance of the bay, to 

 Sanchez, at the head of the bay, is 45 kilometers. 



The south shore, from the head of the bay to the arm known as 

 San Lorenzo Bay, is a succession of jagged cliffs, innumerable islets, 

 and intervening water passages and coves projecting from a more 

 regular escarpment of limestone formation in the background. The 

 irregular coast line west of San Lorenzo Bay is locally known as 

 the Playa Honda coast. East of San Lorenzo Bay and the small 

 village of Sabana de la Mar, the country is low and thickly forested. 



The shore line of the Playa Honda coast is undermined to a depth 

 of several feet from the wash of the tide. The clifflike escarpment 

 of the coast at times is terminated abruptly at the shore line ; again, 

 there are deep indentations or coves between the cliffs which here 

 are at right angles to the shore line. Many of these cliff walls are 

 punctured by entrance to caves formed by ancient sea cutting. It 

 was these caves of the mainland rather than those on the island keys 

 that offered the best material for archeological investigation by the 

 Museum expedition. 



The same excavating force operating on the mainland had ex- 

 cavated caves from the interior of several of the keys of the Playa 

 Honda coast. There has been a continued uplift, as evidenced by 

 the position of some of these caves — 10 to 40 feet above tide level. 

 Some of the caves are cut at lower levels, while others are still in 

 process of formation. Many of the larger caves are still subjected 

 to sea cutting under some of the arches, while other arches and the 

 vaulted roofs roach a maximum height of 100 feet above the present 

 floor level. The floors of all the chambers, whether recent or old, 

 are of limestone, except where they are covered with debris, recently 

 formed soil, or cultural deposits. 



