12(5 



ON TVIK TOPOGRAFIIY AND GEOLOGY 



I^Tear] J opposite the mouth of the Arroyo Caiiua the road crosses the Cenobi and 

 mounts another ridg-e, in every respect a repetition of the first, except that much of 

 this part of the route is over the synclinal axis lying between the second and third 

 intrusions. The rocks are as varied as might be anticipated from the previous 

 descriptions — dark-gray calcareous claystone, black serpentine, green talcose slate 

 with quartz veins, often full of p3^rites, greenish-gray clay shale, and brownish 

 magnesian slate succeed each other between the southern edge of the syenite and the 

 caiion of the Cenobi, while beyond nearly the same features are repeated, until the 

 northern edge of the third belt is reached. A peculiar change was here noticed in 

 the vegetatioh. As the route penetrates further into the heart of the mountains, 

 v/hile the pines still continue to make up, with patches of palm, the greater part of 

 the forest, many other trees, natives of the valley, reappear, and here the wi\d Fuchsia 

 and the blackberiy grow side by side in the thickets, while the brilliant flowers of a 

 dozen unknown species mingle with the most familiar forms of the moist lands of the 

 valley. The great variety of the orchids is apt to strike the observer, but unfor- 

 tunately most of the Dominican members of this family are more gaudy than pretty. 

 The most remarkable one has a great bunch of dark purplish-red leaves, like a 

 maguey, stuck on the side of a pine-tree or lodged in the crotch of a limb, its awkward 

 spike of dull reddish flowers on a long stem the reverse of pretty. Others are more 

 graceful, but none show the brilliant-colored and variously-formed flowers so charac- 

 teristic of the family in other places. The absence of water is also noticeable in these 

 hills. Streams are abundant and their volume is always great, but there are almost 

 no springs in the low places among the hills, and wherever one does occur it is so 

 rare a thing that a little shed is built near it for the accommodation of benighted 

 hunters. One such spot occurs in a place so out of the way on this ridge that it can 

 only be detected by the unwonted sign of a side trail starting off from the main route. 

 There is nothing peculiar about it. It is simply a little pool from Avhich issues a 

 trickling stream ; and yet perhaps the great majority of travellers turn out to it. The 

 trail past it is more worn than the direct one. From this spring the lidge ascends 

 somewhat, winding past the peak of the Gallo until, when nearly southwest of the 

 mountain, it widens out into a little grassy prairie — a perfect park, studded here and 

 there with noble pines, and walled in by high mountains on all sides. The name of 

 the spot is Savana de las Lagunas. I was for a long time at a loss to ascertain why 

 " of the lagoons," until I discovered near it, in a depression, two or three dried up 

 mud-holes, hardly fifty feet long, into which a little surface-water drains in times of 

 heavy rains. 



The spot is a f\ivorite camping-place for the hunters, who can easily bring pack 



