The Mountains of the West Indies 
By T. P. Porter. 
ETWEEN Yucatan — which forms the southern 
horn of the Gulf of Mexico, and the delta of 
the Orinoco — the most northern of the prin- 
cipal rivers of South America, lies the West Indian 
archipelago. This consists of a complete chain of islands, 
the natural beauty of which is unsurpassed, varying as it 
does from the sublimity of Switzerland's alpine grandeur, 
to the soft loveliness of Italy's sunny plains. In the fol- 
lowing pages it is our purpose to embody a general phy- 
sical description of these islands, confining ourselves 
principally, however, to their mountains. But a brief 
politico-geographical description may not prove an alto- 
gether useless preface. 
As may be seen by a glance at the map of Central 
America and the West Indies, the latter are divided 
naturally into two distinct portions. First ot these we 
have the Greater Antilles. The long, curving island to 
the left is Cuba, the principal colony of Spain, often 
spoken of as the " Queen of the Antilles." It curves 
away to the eastward from the entrance of the Mexican 
gulf some 370 miles. South of Cuba is Jamaica, one of 
England's oldest and most important West Indian colo- 
nies. To the east of these lies the island of Hayti, which, 
it will be observed, is divided into two countries — Hayti 
and St. Domingo. The former was once a French 
colony, and the latter a Spanish, but they are now in- 
pependent states, under so-called " republican" forms of 
