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farther from the coast at the eastern than at the western end of 

 the property, but, gradually converging and continuously rising 

 in altitude, it reaches its culminating point near El Turquino, 

 which is readily visible from the sea. It must not be inferred 

 from this that there is a gradual descent from the ridge of the 

 Maestra to the coast. In reality there are numerous spurs, 

 smaller mountain-chains, and various collections of good-sized 

 foot-hills, which in some places altogether shut off the view of 

 the main range, and in all places make the country exceedingly 

 precipitous and difficult to travel. 



rivers, the principal ones being the Sevilla, Guama, Rio Grande, 

 Bayamita, Ubero and the Peladeros. Of these the Sevilla, Guama, 

 Bayamita and Peladeros take their rise in the Maestra itself, while 

 the rest, together with some others with uncertain local names, 

 rise in the front ranges. 



The Guama is one of the largest, and at the same time one of 

 the most typical of the general river systems of the area. At 

 this season it disappears about two miles from the sea and flows 

 under the ground. During the rains, however, it flows in the 

 normal bed, and becomes sufficiently deep and swift to make it 

 quite impassable to man or horse. At its mouth the river 

 basin is a mile or more across and the delta of the river has dis- 

 sected it into numerous islands. These are truly islands only 

 during the rains, being merely patches of land cut out by various 

 branches of the stream at the time of our visit. This compara- 

 tively broad river basin runs back into the interior scarcely more 

 than three miles, when it narrows down and the whole character 

 of the country changes. The mountains come down very sharply 

 to the river's edge, so that the stream appears to run between 

 two great sloping walls. One can get an idea of the meandering 

 only by viewing it from a height, where its struggles to make its 

 way through this chaos of mountains can be traced with some 

 degree of accuracy. These steep river sides are cut up by many 

 canons, at the bottom of which one usually finds a mountain 



