130 



ON THE TOrOGKAPHY AND GEOLOGY 



rock is almost always a chloritic or talcose shale. In one place it is nearly white, 

 almost a steatite ; in another its color is barely different, bnt it is more argillaceons 

 and has a sort of oblique cleavage in addition to the lamination of the strata ; again, 

 it is light-gray, very talcose, and contains little nodular grains of quartz, is dark- 

 gray and without the quartz, or the common red-and- white siliceo-magnesian shale 

 that makes up so much of the eastern end of the chain. All of this is full of quartz 

 veins, frequently not moi'e than an inch thick, and generally milky white. These 

 veins ai'e probably barren of gold, at least so the appearance of the quartz would 

 seem to indicate. ~ ■ 



A dozen miles further west is another little collection of houses, Almacigo, a 

 village often without inhabitants in consequence of the never-ceasing predatory 

 incursions from the Haytian fi-ontier. At the time of my visit to Savaneta the 

 Commandante urged and finally almost prevented us by force from visiting the then 

 about to be deserted hamlet. He gave as a reason that the region was full of out- 

 laws, and that I would be taking an unnecessary risk of my life. I can only, there- 

 fore, avail myself of the scanty information derived from one of my assistants who 

 had previously been there and brought me specimens of the rocks. Almacigo is on 

 a river of the same name, and about a dozen miles back in the hills from Savaneta. 

 It is but a short distance east of the long ridge that runs noith from the main range 

 to the peak of Chaquet. It is clearly in a slate-belt, although a part of the route 

 was described to me as being over " granite." The specimens of rock brought, and 

 said to be a foir specimen of the region, are a white, highly metamorphosed shale, 

 breaking into I'homboids not unlike calc-spar in shape, though more oblique and of 

 course more irregular. Old gold washings are said to exist in these hills, and my 

 informant, whose experience was unhappily much greater than his reliability, pro- 

 fessed to have found the old ditches and other signs of placer-mining. It is to be 

 hoped that the time is not distant when somebody more fortunate than I have been 

 will be enabled to investigate this matter in the manner it deserves. 



But little can be seen of the stiueture of the mountains from Savaneta. From 

 conversation with the most expert mountaineers and others that I could find, I learned 

 that, as it appeared from the town, the high peak of JSJ'alga de Maco wdiich toAvers 

 above everything, sticking heavenward its peculiar-looking summit (not inaptly called 

 by the whimsical name of "Toad's Rump") perhaps seven or eight thousand feet 

 high, is not on the central ridge, but is on a side spur to the southward, similar to 

 those which run northward to Chaquet, Gallo, Rubio, and Joca. It is said that the 

 Artibonite River rises far to the northwest of this peak, runs southeast around its 

 base, and then, as is well known, strikes westward, running out through TIayti. 



