48 GEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 



SOUTH COAST. 



The peninsula extending southward from Yuma Bay to Catalinita Bay 

 continues as a partly submerged boot-shaped bank for a considerable 

 distance into the Caribbean Sea. Saona Island, on this bank, is about 

 22 kilometers long (from east to west) and about 3 to h]4 kilometers wide. 

 The greater part of the island is low, but at its eastern end there is a rocky 

 bluff 35 meters high. In Catalinita Bay, the shallow channel separating 

 Saona Island from the mainland, there are several small islands and cays. 



From Saona Island to Punta Salinas the south shore of Santo Domingo 

 presents little diversity. Rocky cliffs 3 to 4>2 meters high, against which 

 the waves break and dash high in air, extend for leagues. Wooded 

 plains reach inland to the foot of the hills, which can be dimly discerned far 

 away to the north but which approach closer to the shore west of Santo 

 Domingo City. Low Catalina Island, off the port of La Romana, marks 

 the end of a bank that fringes the shore as far west as Andres Bay and at- 

 tains a maximum width of 11 kilometers off San Pedro de Macoris. 

 Another triangular bank between Punta Palenque, near the mouth of Rio 

 Nizao, and Punta Salinas is 9 kilometers wide. At San Pedro de Macoris 

 and Santo Domingo raised coral reefs and terrace plains show that this 

 part of the coast stands higher with respect to the sea than formerly. The 

 terraces near Macoris are described on page 40. 



Between Punta Salinas and Punta Avarena, a distance of 55 kilometers, 

 the south coast of Santo Domingo is deeply indented by three bays. Las 

 Calderas Bay, cut off from the Caribbean Sea by the long sandy spit termi- 

 nating in Punta Salinas and Punta Calderas, is the smallest and most shel- 

 tered of the three. Ocoa Bay is much larger and is wide open to the south. 

 Its bottom is a submerged bank whose outer edge runs westward from the 

 mouth of Rio Ocoa to Punta Martin Garcia. Loma El Niimero rises 

 steeply from its eastern edge, and Loma de la Vigia, on the opposite side, 

 partly protects the port of Azua from south winds. Puerto Viejo, the old 

 port of Azua, southwest of the Loma de la Vigia, has the appearance of the 

 drowned mouth of a valley, but is partly enclosed by raised coral reefs 3 

 meters above sea level. Neiba Bay, on the south side of which is the village 

 of Barahona, is the continuation of Enriquillo Basin, from which it has been 

 separated by the delta of Rio Yaque del Sur. It lies between the lofty 

 Sierra de Martin Garcia on the north and the Sierra de Bahoruco on the 

 south. A bight of very deep water extends from the southeast nearly to 

 the mouth of Rio Yaque del Sur, at the head of the bay, but the shallower 

 water along the sides is obstructed by reefs and shoals. 



From the mouth of Neiba Bay the shore trends south westward to Punta 

 Beata, at the end of the southern peninsula, and the edges of the banks of 

 Beata Island and Alta Vela maintain the same direction for 35 kilometers 

 beyond the point. A channel exceeding 100 fathoms in depth separates the 



