54 
Soil. 
though still retaining its productive qualities; sometimes it is 
red, sometimes of a bluish cast, sometimes of a dark, muddy, 
or lava color; but most generally it is black, and its depth 
varies from ten feet to six inches. In the valleys and slopes, 
in and on the mountains, and on the savannahs and plains, it is 
generally a rich, black loam, varying in depth from three to ten 
feet. In the lowlands, on some of the coasts, it is a salt meadow 
or quagmire, without any solid bottom, except where the roots 
of the mangrove ramify and interlace so as to retain the vege¬ 
table portion of it carried there by 4he streams, while further 
back it is formed into a solid earth, bearing abundance of 
marine-figs, flags, sea-rushes, and tall grass. The deepest and 
richest soil is found in the valleys, at and near the mouths of 
the principal rivers, and is made up of the alluvial deposits 
brought down by these streams. So variable are the nature 
and characteristics of the soil, that it often radically changes in 
passing from one side of a valley to another, or crossing a stream, 
and sometimes differs essentially on the opposite banks of the 
rivers; and often, in passing along the road, it will be observed 
to change in the course of a few rods, or even feet. In the 
larger valleys and plains, especially some distance from the 
mountains, it is more uniform ; and more uniform on the South 
side of the Island than in the interior and on the North side. 
.... On some of the mountains and their elevated slopes the 
soil is good, and the grass and other similar undergrowth grow 
dense and rank to their very tops, while the elevated portions of 
others sustain only broken and ragged forests of pitch pine, in¬ 
terspersed with palm and many hard and durable woods. 
Others of these mountains are again bald and sterile on their 
tops and around their summits, peering up through the green 
and heavy foliage below like naked cones. An analysis of the 
soil, at different places, attests the fact that it is highly impreg¬ 
nated with the minerals peculiar to the mountains, which prob¬ 
ably accounts for its variety in color in different localities. It 
has been found to contain iron, sulphur, copper, antimony, 
