or SANTO DOMINGO. 



73 



terraces, but rather as a series of slopes, ^N^ear Santo Domingo City, but three can 

 be distinctly made out — one on the edge of the river, corresponding to the bluif wall 

 of rocks of the sea-margin ; a second is in the village of San Carlos, just outside of 

 the walls ; while a third is directly outside of the village. A mile back of Santo 

 Domingo, the land is remarkably level, and about one hundi'ed and fifty feet above 

 tide water. All the wells are of this depth, while in the city, their average depth is 

 about fifty feet. On the southeastern coast, this terrace character is well seen from 

 the sea, one blutf rising behind the other far inland. 



In the neighborhood of the Jaina River, where it emerges from the hills, the soil 

 is a coarse gravel, often containing large boulders. Going eastward, the gravel loses 

 it coarse character, becomes gradually sandy, and finally almost a clay. All the 

 region east of this river, from the tree-belt to the hills, is a succession of beautiful 

 savanas, cut up by occasional water-courses, and, in parts, plentifully sprinkled with 

 ponds and little lakes. The savanas continue to beyond Higuey, interrupted by 

 strij)s of timber along the streams, and a little clump occasionally in low places, 

 where the drainage of the water supplies a greater amount of moisture than over the 

 other parts of the plain. 



The line of juncture of the prairie and the coast forest supplies some of the 

 prettiest park-like views that can be imagined. In the vicinity of San Antonio de 

 Gueira, for example, the first intimation of the proximity of the savana is the 

 occasional appearance of a liftle grassy opening in the woods. These become larger, 

 more numerous, and close together, until finally the country becomes one continuous 

 park, carpeted with green, dotted by clumps of trees, through which the cattle roam 

 in herds, while here and there may be seen the palm-thatched cottage of a herder, 

 embowered in a cluster of cocoanuts. On its northern margin the boundary of the 

 savana is exceedingly irregular. It is encroached on by numerous spurs of the 

 mountains, and, in its turn, not only sends long tongues back into the hills, but even 

 surmounts them in places. A very few of the hills are entirely grass-covered, while 

 many of the outer ones are divided between grass and forest. The peculiar-looking 

 hills near Bayaguana stand out like islands in the plain, and near Monte Plata are 

 some smaller spurs, not quite so isolated, but equally naked. About San Pedro and 

 Yamasa the plain forms deep bays, nearly shut in by the hills, and on its extreme 

 western edge the Savana of Santa Eosa is a similar extension, reaching to the J aina 

 River. 



Sierra Prieta is a prominent hill running out into the plain, the terminal point of 

 a long ridge between the Isabella and the Ozama Rivers. It is a low, conical peak, 



A. p. S. — VOL. XV. s. 



