CUBA 



201 



sions. The mountains of this 

 class do not constitute a con- 

 tinuous axial backbone to the 

 island, as popularly supposed, 

 but occur in three distinct and 

 independent groups, known as 

 the eastern, western, and cen- 

 tral, respectively, the trends of 

 which overlap each other en 

 echelon. The highest of these 

 is the narrow, precipitous, east- 

 ern range, known as the Sierra 

 Maestra, which dominates the 

 straight east-and-west coast of 

 Santiago de Cuba* and culmi- 

 nates in the Pico del Turquino, 

 which rises directly from the 

 sea to a height variously esti- 

 mated at from 8,600 to 9,000 

 feet. La Gran Pi'edra, in this 

 range, near Santiago, is 5,200 

 feet high. This master range 

 extends through 2? degrees of 

 longitude, from Guantanamo 

 to Cape Cruz, and constitutes 

 an independent feature topo- 

 graphically different from the 

 rest of Cuba. Geographically 

 .it belongs to a class with the 

 Blue mountains of Jamaica 

 and the higher summits of 

 Haiti, collectively constituting 

 the master ranges of the Great 

 Antilles, which have been 

 thrown up directly at right 

 angles to the trends of the con- 

 tinental Cordilleras and at a far 

 more recent period of time. 

 These mountains are composed 

 of non- calcareous conglomer- 

 ates and shales of Mesozoicand 



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