GEOGRAPHY. 49 



banks on which are Alta Vela and Beata islands, and a wide expanse of very 

 deep water intervenes between these two islands and Los Frailes, a cluster 

 of white-topped, rugged rocks rising from a bank 3 kilometers in diameter 

 nearly midway between Alta Vela and Cabo Falso. The Beata Island 

 bank is attached to the mainland and sweeps in a broad semicircle to Cabo 

 Falso. The shore from Punta Beata as far north as Cabo Rojo is a suc- 

 cession of steep cliffs, which maintain their verticality even where they are 

 faced by a beach of sand or pebbles. 



Cabo Falso, 40 meters high, is the extremity of a long headland which is 

 connected by a ridge with the Sierra de Bahoruco. The shore north of it is 

 indented by several small bays. A bank of irregular outline hugs the shore 

 north of Cabo Falso, widens off Cabo Rojo and Trou Jacob, and attains 

 a width of 10 or 11 kilometers off Pedernales at the Haitian boundary. 



