730 WILLIAM F. JONES 
country. Their hospitality and assistance makes traveling in that 
country a real pleasure, where otherwise it might be anything but 
suchen 
TOPOGRAPHY 
The Gran Cordillera of the island, which attains its greatest 
development in Santo Domingo, forms in Haiti the north range, one 
of three well-defined, generally parallel, ranges in the latter country. 
The north range forms the north peninsula of Haiti and if continued 
west and east from Santo Domingo, forms the Cordillera of Cuba 
and Porto Rico, respectively. In Haiti the highest elevation 
attained by this range is about 1,500 meters, while in Santo Domingo | 
it attains in Loma Tina an elevation of over 3,100 meters, the 
highest peak of the Antilles. 
The central range, called the ‘‘Chaine des Mateux,’’ extends 
from the west coast on the south of St. Marc to the Caribbean Sea 
in Santo Domingo, and attains an elevation of about 1,700 meters. 
These two ranges, which trend generally S. 60°-70° E. are connected 
by the range of the Montagnes Noires, which trends S. 45° E. and 
attains an elevation of 1,500 meters. Between this latter and the 
north range is the central plain of Haiti, which drains, not to the 
east, but by a deep cut through the Montagnes Noires to the west. 
The south range, forming the south peninsula, attains, in the 
Montagne de la Selle, an elevation of about 2,700 meters, the high- 
est point in Haiti. This range trends nearly east and west. 
Between the south and central ranges and extending from the 
Bay of Port-au-Prince to the Bay of Barahona in Santo Domingo 
is a depression about fifteen to twenty kilometers wide, bounded 
along its entire length by the precipitous faces of the ranges on 
either side. Much of this depression is below sea-level and contains 
two lakes, both below sea-level but at different elevations. The 
writer expects to present a paper at some future time on this rather 
unique locality. 
With the exception of the south range the mountains of Haiti 
are generally bare in appearance and a large portion of the north- 
western part of the country is even quite arid. Valleys are gener- 
ally fertile. The central plain is generally open grass-covered 
d 
