1935] 
West Indian Carabidx 
171 
real forest at low altitude in Haiti, nothing better than 
cactus and acacia scrub and dry, open woodland, and even 
these exist only where fresh water is not available for 
humans. A single exception should perhaps be made of 
the tip of the southwestern (Tiberon) peninsula, near 
Dame Marie. Here, according to Dr. Barker, who has seen 
the region from the air, good forest seems to be continuous 
from the westernmost ranges of the Massif de la Hotte 
down almost to sea level. The vegetation indicates a local 
rainfall of nearly 200 inches a year. With this exception, 
all the wet forest of Haiti (I am speaking of the country, 
not the island, for I do not know Santo Domingo) is now 
confined to the mountains. 
The mountains of the country of Haiti form three nat- 
ural geographical divisions. Each division has its own 
distinctive ground fauna, found as a rule only in the rem- 
nants of cloud forest at high altitudes. Almost all of the 
true mountain species and even some of the genera are 
restricted to a single one of these divisions. This is true 
not only of the insects but of the lizards, frogs, mollusks, 
Peripatus, etc. as well. The mountains of the northern 
part of Haiti, north of the Cul de Sac, may probably be 
considered faunistically as a single division (Division I.). 
They are relatively low and accessible, and what little 
forest is left on them is confined to the summits of a very 
few ranges. The sooner these mountains are thoroughly 
explored zoologically, the better, for some forest species 
have probably already become extinct, and others will fol- 
low. On the plateau of Mt. Basil (4,700 ft.), to which we 
climbed from the road between Ennery and St. Michel de 
l’Atalaye, there is still a good deal of low, dense, wet cloud 
forest. The plateau is rough and there is no permanent 
drinking water, and the Negroes do not like the cold at 
that altitude, but even so they climb up daily and are grad- 
ually clearing the best growth to plant vegetables. In 1928 
there were some patches of much better cloud forest on 
Haut Piton (about 8,900 ft.), near Port-de-Paix, according 
to Mr. James Bond, who climbed the mountain on an or- 
nithological reconnaissance, but they were rapidly being 
destroyed at that time. There is also a small area of forest 
on Puilboreau, just north of Ennery, but it is said to be 
