GEOGRAPHY. 27 



CORDILLERA SEPTENTRIONAL. 



The Cordillera Septentrional (Northern mountain system), sometimes 

 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 is 

 made up of several more or less parallel ranges and a few isolated mountain 

 masses. 



The highest mountains in the Cordillera Septentrional are in its west- 

 central part, north of Santiago, where some of the peaks are said to attain 

 altitudes of 1,000 to 1,400 meters above sea level. The range near San- 

 tiago as seen from the south presents a fairly even sky line, broken by few 

 serrated peaks such as characterize the Cordillera Central. (See PI. II, A.) 

 The parts of the range that project above the generally even profile have 

 flat or rounded tops. The south front of this range is a fault scarp, which 

 has been considerably modified by erosion. 



The western part of the Cordillera Septentrional, to which the name 

 "Monte Cristi Range" might appropriately be restricted, is very irregular. 

 The hills and low mountains composing it are steep and in some places 

 rough, but they do not rise to great heights. The part adjacent to Monte 

 Cristi consists of isolated, rounded rocky hills, 60 meters or more high, 

 rising abruptly from a rolling but, on the whole, level plain, which averages 

 little more than 10 meters in height above sea level. El Morro de Monte 

 Cristi, also called La Granja, shown in Plate II, B, is a narrow, wedge-shaped 

 outlier about 225 meters high, composed of nearly horizontal sediments of 

 Miocene age. It is separated from the mainland by salt marshes. 1 



At the arid west end of the Cordillera Septentrional there are few con- 

 tinuous water channels. A little farther to the southeast, where the hills 

 are somewhat higher, the waterways are more continuous and better de- 

 fined. 



At the east end of the Cordillera Septentrional there is no steep south- 

 ward-facing escarpment like the mountain front near Santiago. The 

 ascent to the mountains proper from the Vega Real is over low foothills or 

 spurs, which rise gradually to altitudes of 100 meters or more above the 

 valley. The hills are composed of buff impure limestones which soften on 

 exposure and afford few bare outcrops. The flat-topped mountains that 

 form the summit of the Cordillera Septentrional between Altamira and El 

 Aguacate suggest a peneplained surface at an altitude of about 650 meters. 

 (See PI. II, C.) 



Monte Isabel de Torres (see PI. Ill, A) rises steeply almost from the water's 

 edge at Puerto Plata to an altitude of 815 meters above sea level and is a 

 conspicuous landmark. As seen from the harbor it is wedge-shaped, and it 

 culminates in a flat-topped peak, which is usually swathed in clouds. In 



1 For further description of the Monte Cristi region see Chapter VII of this volume. 



