THE PEPINO HILLS. y 



south. While the general axis of uplift extends east and west, the 

 mountains do not now present a well-defined and continuous summit 

 crest, although various terms, like the " central backbone range," are 

 popularly used, indicating such a feature. The chief approach to an 

 axial crest is an irregular line of summits which can be drawn about 

 two-thirds the distance across the island from east to west between the 

 head waters of the streams flowing to the north and to the south coasts. 

 This feature, however, which follows more nearly the southern than 

 the northern coast, is a line of separated peaks and passes. High peaks 

 exceeding in altitude this so called divide project at various places 

 from the lateral ridges which extend between the parallel streams flow- 

 ing from this drainage divide. 



The main crest line extends from Mayaguez on the west through 

 Aibonito and Adjuntas to Humacoa on the east. This is called the 

 central Cordillera west of Aibonito and the Sierra de Cayey east of 

 that town. Another eastward extending crest line bifurcates from this 

 main ridge near the center of the island, so that there are virtually 

 two crest lines in the eastern half of the island. The northern branch 

 is the Sierra Luquillo, which practically extends from west of the San 

 Juan-Ponce military road to the northeast cape. This range, which 

 decreases in altitude to the west, contains the highest island summit, 

 El Yunque, and is nearly separated from that of the Sierra de Cayey 

 by the valleys of the Rio Guarabo, which flows west into the Loiza, and 

 the Rio NaguabO, which flows east into the Anegada Passage. The 

 summit lines of the two sierras merge in the vicinity of Barranquitas, 

 near the geographic center of the island. More accurately speaking, 

 these mountains, as a whole, when looked down upon from the highest 

 points, present the aspect of a sea of conical peaks and beaded ridges, 

 rather than a dividing ridge. The highest eminences of the billowy 

 summits nowhere exceed 3,500 feet, and this altitude, if attained at all, 

 is reached by only one peak, that of El Yunque, at the extreme north- 

 east. The height of this peak is given on the Spanish maps at 4,087 

 feet, but it is reported much lower by other authorities, with a mini- 

 mum estimate of 3,200 feet. Other summits of the island, although 

 numerous, hardly anywhere exceed 3,000 feet. 



THE PEPINO HILLS. 



On the west side of the north coast there are some exceptionally 

 high hills which extend back as far as Lares and San Sebastian ; they 

 might be considered truly mountainous, owing to their high elevation 

 (1,200 feet) along their interior border, and the fact that they are a 

 X>art of the general mountain uplift. Along their inner border these are 

 of a remarkably pointed character, known in Jamaica as " cockpits," 

 and are appropriately termed "pepinos," or cucumbers, by the natives 

 of Porto Rico. These are numerous sharp-pointed conical or flattened 



