128 



htjmboldt's cuba. 



More than four-fifths of the land of Cuba is low 

 and its surface covered with secondary and tertiary 

 formations, through which granitic-gneis, syenite, 

 and euphotide rocks have protruded. 



At present we have no very exact idea of the 

 geognostic character of the country, nor of the rela- 

 tive age or nature of its soils. We only know that 

 the highest group of mountains is in the extreme 

 southeastern portion of the island, between Cape 

 Cruz, Cape Maysi and Holguin. The ridge known 

 as the Sierra del Cohre, situate northwest of the 

 city of St. Jago de Cuba, is said to be more than 

 7,600 feet high. 1 According to this supposition, the 

 hills of this ridge are higher than the Blue Moun- 

 tains of Jamaica, and the peaks of Banquillo, and 

 Banaste of St. Domingo. The Sierra de Tarquino, 

 fifty miles west of the city of St. Jago, belongs to the 

 same group with the Sierra del Cobre. 



A chain of hills runs through the island from 

 E.S.E. to N.N.W., approaching the southern coast 



1 The Sierra del Cobre is supposed by some travellers to be visible 

 from the shore of Jamaica, but most probably it is from the north- 

 ern slope of the Blue Mountains. In the first case, its height would 

 exceed ten thousand feet, supposing a refraction of one-twelfth 

 Certain it is, that the mountains of Jamaica are visible from the 

 summit of the hills of Tarquino. — Patriota Americana, Vol. ii. 

 p* 282. — H. 



