138 



ON THE TOrOGKAPHY AND GEOLOGY 



gold-pan — and by carcfnl inqniiy, I have never been able to learn of" the existence of 

 gold in the region. After crossing the hill, which is not very long, the trail crosses 

 a little caifion principally remarkable for the great size of the rounded sandstone 

 boulders in its bed. Some of these, of tons weight, are as rounded as if they had been 

 rolled for many miles, though their source is in the hill sides that flank the ravine. 

 The sandstone is a light gray, and the size of the boulders indicates a heavy bedding, 

 only equalled in the formation by the thick strata of the Tablas Hills west of Bani. 

 After crossing the canon and climbing over rough rocks to the summit, the traveller 

 finds himself on a narrow ridge of slates, bounded by deep canons and often Avith no 

 forest growth— rolling savanas, or, as they would be called in the United States, 

 " ])rairie hills," alternating with open pieces of pine woods. In the bottoms other 

 trees take the places of the pine, and in the low-lying savanas the " ohancha " {hojo 

 ancha, or broad leaf) predominates — a ti-ee remarkable for its rounded leaf, often more 

 than a foot in diameter, and for its straight trunk of hard wood, much used in building 

 or wherever posts have to be planted in moist ground. The soil is of a bright red 

 throughout these hills, and in some places furnishes an excellent clay, used, however, 

 only for making the coarse pottery or the red earthen pipe-heads used universally by 

 the people of the country. The underlying shales are nearly always talcose. At 

 Piedra Blanca there is a fissile gray slate that has a decidedly semi-crystalline look, 

 but it is limited in extent. The same slates and same red soils continue, with a rare 

 bed of sandstone, across the Aguacate Creek to the hill of Laguneta. In the last- 

 mentioned stream is found the usual mixture of a few slates and many sandstone 

 l>ebbles that would be very apt to deceive a careless observer. The softer material 

 is so promptly triturated to sand or mud that it does not make a due proportion of 

 the pebbles, while the little quartz — certainly not half nor quarter of a percentage of 

 the rock in place — in some parts makes the greater bulk of the stones in the streams. 



The trail across by Avay of the Maimon River, Mount Vanilejo and the Upper 

 Nizao to Maniel, breaks off at Piedra Blanca, and follows up the bottom of the Mai- 

 mon, constantly crossing the stream until it reaches the foot of the mountain. Mr. 

 Pennell describes it as being a rough mountain trail, difficult at all times, but probably 

 almost impassible during the rainy season. He says that the syenite belt, with 

 v/hich he is familiar, near Jarabacoa, comes down the Maimon, almost to the fork of 

 the road. I have observed the debris in the Maimon to be composed almost wholly 

 of this rock, but never saw the line of division. He further describes it as extend- 

 ing from there jjast the head of the river and across the mountain, making up the 

 whole of Vanilejo peak, disappearing under the slates on its southern slope, near the 

 base. . - ' ' 



