OF SA^'TO DOMINGO. 



133 



surplus of water, and would become, on a smaller scale, a I'epetition of the Constanza 

 Valley. The resemblance would be perfect, even to the matter of a deep channel lor 

 the stream through coarse gravel beds on one side, with a finer soil on the other side 

 of the basin ; and on the gravel there is a growth of forest trees, while the present 

 marsli would, judging from analogy in the other cases, doubtless continue a grassy 

 tract. 



There is not a spot in Santo Domingo less tropical in appearance than the Valley 

 of Constanza. The settlement of a dozen houses is in the midst of the woods. There 

 is not a palm, plantain, or other tropical-looking })lant in sight. The frowning 

 black mountains, shutting in the valley on all sides ; the tall colnmns of the pine 

 trees, with the i)rostrate trunks and yet solid stumps of their fallen brethren ; the 

 little houses, encircled with split rail-fences and bar-gates ; the bi'owsing cattle, 

 horses, and sheep, and above all the crisp morning air, so cold as to condense one's 

 bi'eatli into visible vapoi-, all point rather to the heart of the Sierra Nevada than to 

 the interior of an island under the Cancer. 



Directly in the Valley of Constanza, crossing its lower part, is a very narrow 

 dyke of a cross-grained syenite, strongly mottled white and black by the lai'ge crystals 

 of which it is composed. OAving to the depth of the giavel deposit, I could not 

 ascertain its width. It crops out on the hill side at one edge ©f the valley, and 

 extends under the soil. At most it seems hardly possible that it is over a few 

 hundred yards, and I may have largely over-rated it. It is the more worthy of 

 notice since it is the only eruptive rock encountered in crossing-the mountain on this 

 route, after leaving the nari'ow strip near Jarabacoa. 



From the houses the pass continues to the southwest, leaving the valley within a 

 mile of the settlement, and, climbing over a little low divide, it crosses a branch of 

 the Limon, and then winds for sevei'al miles along hill sides by a trail cut into the 

 slope. Although over veiy rough ground, the trail is good ; and although no repairs 

 have been attempted for years, it shows that it was made with considerable labor 

 and at no little expense. It is said to have been cut for military purposes by the 

 Haytians, who seem to have considered Constanza a point of strategic value, despite 

 its difficulty of access. After winding along for several miles, almost always on the 

 steep hill side, it descends the point of a spur several hundred feet to the back of the 

 river, where a little flat furnishes the necessary space for a hol der's shanty and cattle- 

 ])cn. The half-acre enclosure was full of grass and supplied abundance of fodder for 

 our animals. The descent of the hill was rendered the more difficult from the fact that 

 it was not only so steep as to necessitate a zig-zag trail, but the rocks were laid baie 

 A. p. S. VOL. XV. 2ii, 



