76 



ON TflE TOPOGRAPHY AND f GEOLOGY 



can still be made out. This ditch, after winding around a point of hill, crossed the gravel 

 bed of the ISTigua by means of a channel confined between two stone walls, and then skirted 

 the left bank of the river for half a mile or more to another mill, the walls of which still 

 remain pretty well preserved. The foregoing information is derived partly from sur- 

 veys made by Mr. R. Pennell and myself, and partly from the statements of an old 

 Haytien, M. la Plene, who assured me that when he arrived in the vicinity with 

 Touissant I'Ovei'ture, in 1801, then a boy of fifteen, the ditch across the river was dis- 

 tinctly visible, almost intact. The dam is now ruined from want of care. The water 

 has undermined it in several places ; the greater part finds outlet along the old creek 

 bed, but during the last year (1871), another channel has opened. The top of the 

 work, seven or eight feet wide, and as solid as a single rock, forms the only stone bridge 

 in the Republic ! This place is much resorted to by pic-nic parties for the beauty of 

 the scenery, and the unusually good bathing facilities. 



Another spot in the same vicinity, although equally noted, is not so much visited, 

 partly because of two additional miles of travel to reach it ; partly because of the very 

 i-ough, rocky trail. This is the group of caves, known as Pomiel, on the same ridge, 

 but further up the river. The caves are several ; two large ones connected by a few 

 narrow passages, but each having its outlet, form the principal attraction ; while the 

 others ai'c mere indentations in the face of a bluff. These lai'ger caves are several hun- 

 dred yards in length, excavated through the white limestone of the mountains, and 

 consist of successions of large chambers, sometimes connected by good-sized corri- 

 dors, though oftener by passages so narrow as to admit a person with difficulty. 

 There are but few stalactites, and none of them of any beauty. One of the caves is 

 frequented by myriads of bats, whose dung forms a coating of a foot or two deep over 

 the floor ; while the other, known as the " White Cave," is almost entirely free from 

 these inhabitants. 



From the vicinity of the caves the view out is beautiful. Half a dozen miles of 

 the narrow valley of the N^igua River can be seen, winding among the hills, while on 

 each side, the lower foot hills roll off like billows as far as the eye can reach, bounded 

 by the blue haze, or by the blue ocean. 



The bottom land of the !Nigua is wonderfully rich, and the cane fields, small as they 

 are at present, are an earnest of what could be, if a more energetic race were to take 

 them in hand. At the mouth of the river, half a dozen miles below San Cristobal, 

 are the ruins of a very large sugar estate. The walls of the house, built on a stone 

 terrace, indicate a degree of comfort nowhere found now in the interior ; and the re- 

 mains of the mill show that there was a time when at least one establishment in Santo 

 Domingo rivalled the great sugar estates of Cuba, 



