PHYSICAL FEATUEES OF CUBA. 



857 



Cuba, however, is exceeded in altitude and general relief by San Domingo. 

 The only well-defined mountain range is the Sierra Maestra, which rises abruptly 

 above the water's edge on the south-east coast over against Jamaica. The range 

 begins at the sharp headland of Cape Cruz, and rises rapidly through a series of 

 terraces to a height of 3,300 feet in the Ojo del Toro crest. Farther on the chain 

 culminates in a summit usually called the Pico de Tarquino, perhaps a corruption 

 of Pico Turquino, or " Blue Peak," which is variously estimated at from 6,900 to 



Fig. 169. — Easteen Division of Cuba. 

 Scale 1 : 6,000,000. 



to 500 

 Fathoms. 



Depths 



SO-t to 1,000 

 Fathoms. 



2,000 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



124 Miles. 



8,400 feet. Here the mountains, falling precipitously seawards, merge inland in a 

 broad plateau, whose furrowed slopes incline towards the Rio Cauto valley. But 

 farther on the chief range, here called the Sierra del Cobre ("Copper Mountains"), 

 is gradually contracted, and after developing an amphitheatre of low hills round 

 the city of Santiago, dies out on the marshy banks of the Rio Gfuantanarao. One 

 of the peaks in the Sierra del Cobre takes the name of La Gran Piedra (5,200 feet) 

 from a huge block of conglomerate poised on the summit. The main formation of 

 the Sierra Maestra consists of diorites and porphyries underlying tertiary rocks, 



