358 MEXICO, CEXTRAX AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



interspersed near Santiago with trachytes and basalts, but with no trace of recent 

 lavas, scoriae, pumice, or volcanic craters. Yet in this region of the island earth- 

 quakes are most frequent and violent. 



A transverse depression separates the Sierra Maestra and the plateau on which . 

 it stands from the rest of the island. The mountains strewn in disorder over the 

 eastern extremity of Cuba constitute a system quite distinct from the main range, 

 and far more irregularly disposed. They begin at the very headland of Cape 

 Maisi, and are carved by the rivers into numerous secondary groups, which in 

 many places terminate in sharp crests, the so-called cuchillas, or "knives." 



Near the terminal headland rises the superb truncated cone of the Yunque de 

 Baracoa, some 3,300 feet high. Farther on the mountains are continued in 

 irregular masses running parallel with the northern seaboard. Here and there 

 granites crop out above the calcareous deposits by which they were formerly covered, 

 but they nowhere develop dominating crests. The whole upland system falls gradu- 

 ally from east to west, and in the middle of the island all eminences have already 

 disappeared. This part of Cuba, here narrowed to a width of not more than 46 

 miles, is partly occupied by marshy coastlands, between which stretches a low-lying 

 plain. Before the construction of the railway connecting both coasts, a trocha, 

 or track, traversing the forests was regarded as forming the parting-line between 

 the two halves of the island. During the insurrection which nearly resulted in 

 the separation of Cuba from Spain, the Government troops had erected a line of 

 forts along this track in order to close the routes to the western towns and planta- 

 tions against the rebels holding the eastern uplands. 



Beyond this central depression the ground again rises to a moderate elevation, 

 most of the heights having an altitude of scarcely more than 800 or 1,000 feet. 

 But their abrupt slopes and deep rocky ravines impart a wild, rugged aspect to 

 these heights, which are separated by intervening rolling ground. According to 

 Rodriguez-Ferrer the culminating-point of this central region is the Potrerillo 

 (2,900 feet), north-west of Trinidad in the district of Cinco Villas, on the south side. 

 Were the island to subside 300 or 400 feet it would be decomposed into groups 

 disposed like the chain of the Bahamas, one of the largest of which would be that 

 dominated by the heights lying west of the central depression of the Cinco Villas. 



In the western region between Matanzas and Havana the uplands nearer the 

 north coast culminate in the Pan de Matanzas (1,300 feet), while west of Havana 

 the Cordillera de los Organos rises in the Pan de Guajaibon to a height of about 

 2,000 feet. This extreme western range projects its last headland to the north 

 of Guadiana Bay, beyond which a low peninsula of sandy dûmes, swamps and 

 brushwood terminates in Cape San Antonio on the east side of Yucatan channel. 



The whole of this western part of Cuba usually takes the name of Vuelta de 

 Ahajo, or the Leeward region. Hence the extreme eastern section of the island, 

 directly exposed to the trade wind, should take the corresponding designation of 

 Vuelta de Arriba, or "Windward region. But this term is applied not to the eastern 

 but to the central districts, whi(!h, relatively to the inhabitants of Havana, already 

 lie to windward. 



