PART I. 



TOPOaRAPHli:!AL DESCRIPTION. 



CHAPTER I. 



TOPOGRAPHYOFTHEMAINOHAIN. 



The Republic of Santo Domingo is an irregular triangle, covering about two-thirds 

 of the island of the same name, with its apex at the eastern extremity of the island, 

 and its base abutting against the sister Republic of Hayti, which occupies the remaining 

 western one-third. Its greatest length, from east to west, is about 270 miles, and its 

 base is about 150 miles north and south. Its area is estimated at a trifle over 20,000 

 square miles, while Hayti comprises about 10,000 square miles more, including the 

 whole western coast region and the two long peninsulas which project towards Cuba. 

 The boundary between the two countries is well defined, being to a great extent a 

 chain of mountains and hills. This line was surveyed and agreed upon in the last 

 century between the Governments of Spain and France, when the whole island occu- 

 pied the position of colonies of these two Powers. Since then there has never been 

 a formal change of the boundary, although Haj^ti has persistently attempted not only 

 to occupy a little more than its share, but also to conquer the whole Spanish portion. 

 At present the Dominican Government is in peaceful possession of all the area 

 claimed by it, except a narrow strip bordering Hayti, which is abandoned by both 

 Powers and occupied only by a handful of roving desperadoes, who hold themselves 

 amenable to no government and are equally willing to rob their so-called friends, as 

 their aclmowledged foes. 



The Spanish portion of the island, that of which we have to treat, is irregularly 

 divided into two parts, by a chain of mountains Imown as the Cibao range ; each 

 part being again sub-divided by spurs of this chain, or by separate ranges. ISTorth 

 of the Cibao Mountains, lies a long east and west valley called by the same name, 

 extending from the Haytien frontier to Samana Bay, and bounded on the north by a 

 ]'ange parallel with the first, which borders the coast from Monte Cristi to the extremity 

 of the Samana peninsula. South of this great central back-bone, the countr}^ is a 

 series of broad level plains and Avide valleys, separated from each other by spurs run- 

 ning nearly parallel with, or at narrow angles from, the main Cordillera. For a better 

 understanding of the subject, I propose to describe, somewhat in detail, the physical 



