OVERLAND TO LA ESPERANZA 21 



weathered into a more or less precipitous elevation 

 of white limestone and festooned with the rank 

 vegetation a rich soil produces. The lomas are 

 less steep and often quite barren of trees, their 

 clays and sands affording but scant vegetation. 

 Usually, however, they are lightly covered by an 

 open forest of scattered pines and a wiry long grass. 

 In their valleys and arroyos where moisture is more 

 permanent, a growth of tree ferns is often met, 

 but they always lack the rich lush vegetation of 

 the mogotes, above which the plumes of tall palms 

 are a distinct element. 



All the northern half of the Pinar del Rio 

 province is a mountain maze of high rounded 

 lomas, a former elevated plain of some fifteen 

 hundred feet now eroded into great land surges 

 without particular alignment or system. Directly 

 up through the central portion of this mountainous 

 area are projected a series of more or less parallel 

 limestone ranges. These great ridges have east 

 and west axes and attain a greater elevation than 

 the lomas. They are known as "sierras," and 

 though distinguished by many individual and 

 local names are called in general the "Sierra de 

 los Organos" or "Organ-Pipe" Mountains. The 



