14 BULLETIN 15 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



areas are marked by continuous ocean cutting. This is particularly- 

 applicable to eastern provinces of the island of Santo Domingo. 

 The land mass extending from Cuba to the Virgin Islands is now 

 submerged in part, but is still represented by the islands of Cuba, 

 Santo Domingo, and Porto Rico. A central axial mountain range 

 traverses the islands and reaches its highest elevation in the Prov- 

 ince of La Vega in the watersheds surrounding the valley of Con- 

 stanza. The negative influence of environment may be noted in the 

 identity of cultural finds from kitchen middens of this upland 

 valley with midden deposits from habitation sites at much lower 

 elevations. There is, to be sure, at archeological stations far re- 

 moved from the sea, a lack of shell deposits of mollusks such as 

 conchs, clams, also of fish and of turtle bones; but in the essentials 

 of the Arawak culture pattern an identity is preserved between 

 archeological stations of the coast and of the mountainous interior. 

 In Santo Domingo the axial cordillera includes perhaps two-thirds 

 of the entire land mass. Another range paralleling the central 

 cordillera on the north extends from the north coast of Haiti near 

 the mouth of the Yaque River to the eastern boundary of the island, 

 sending a spur throughout the length of Samana Peninsula far to 

 the east. This peninsula is a mass of irregular mountain ridges and 

 spurs with a small fringe of lowlands along the coast. 



The topographic divisions included in the Dominican Republic ° 

 are the northern mountain range, the Cordillera Septentrional; 

 Samana Peninsula ; on the northeast Cibao Valley, the great central 

 plain or meadow (vega) ; the Cordillera Central; the Valley of San 

 Juan; the Azua Plain; Sierra de Neiba; Sierra de Martin Garcia; 

 Enriquillo Basin; Sierra de Bahoruco; southern peninsula of Bara- 

 hona Province ; and the southern coastal plain. 



The Cordillera Septentrional or northern mountain system, also 

 called the Monte Cristi Range, starts as low, rounded, rocky hills 

 near Monte Cristi, extends southeastward for about 200 kilometers 

 parallel to the northern coast, and terminates near the shore of Bahia 

 Escocesa. It includes a few isolated mountain masses such as the 

 Silla de Caballo, or Saddle Mountains, near Monte Cristi. 



The highest mountains of the northern range are in the west, north 

 of Santiago, where some of the peaks attain altitudes of 1,000 or 

 more meters above sea level. 



The western part of the ISIonte Cristi Range is very irregular. 

 Isolated, rounded rocky hills, 60 meters or more high, rise abruptly 

 from a rolling plain which averages little more than 10 meters above 

 sea level. El Morro de INIonte Cristi is a narrow, wedge-shaped out- 



"Vaughan, T. W., Cooke, Wythe, Condit. D. I)., Ross, C. R., Woodring, W. P., and 

 Calkins. F. C. A Geological Reconnaissance of the Dominican Republic. Dominican Re- 

 public Geol. Surv. Mem., vol. 1, 1921. 



