78 TlMEHRI. 
in St. Domingo, not many miles from Porto-Plata, built 
entirely of that wood, the owner having assured us that 
he found it less expensive to utilise the raw material at 
hand than to convey the ordinary building materials from 
the port. Minerals of all kinds are said to abound in the 
interior, and under European government were some- 
what extensively worked ; but the mines are now entirely 
abandoned. At the eastern extremity of the most north- 
ern range of mountains, there is a hill called the " Load- 
stone Mountain," all the rocks and stones of which pos- 
sess magnetic properties, some to a considerable extent. 
From this "mountain" one may descend to the banks of 
the Yuna, thence to embark in a boat and drift 
dreamily on to the bay of Samana, through prospects of 
exquisite beauty and weird grandeur that are constantly 
changing, and blending with each other, like the scenes 
in a dissolving view exhibition. 
Crossing the Mona Passage, we arrive at Porto-Rico 
— the " Golden Gate." This is the last, and smallest, of 
the Greater Antilles. The great mountain chain which 
we have followed from Cuba through Hayti, takes a 
southerly incline in the latter island — and appears to 
reach the coast of Porto-Rico at its south western ex- 
tremity. Thus, in the latter island it ranges along the 
southern sea-board. Having traversed the length of the 
land, however, it turns off, at the eastern side, in a 
north easterly direction, and falls into the sea, to reap- 
pear in bold, broken peaks and rocky ridges amongst 
the Virgin Islands The interior of the island, north of 
this range, does not slope gradually to the Atlantic 
coast, but is composed of broken mountains and chains 
of hills, varying from one thousand to over three 
