thirty-six miles long by eight and a half wide.
From this there is a rampart of coral reefs to either
shore, broken by passages which leave channels sufficient
for safe entrance to the bay.
T he whole length of the island of Haiti, from
Cape Tiburón to Cape Engaño at the extremity of
its single eastern peninsula, is four hundred and
seven miles. Its greatest width, where it extends
down to Cape Beata on the southern coast, is one
hundred and sixty-five miles; but its form is very
irregular, narrowing toward the east, and its area is
about 28,250 square miles. This is nearly two
thirds of the area of Cuba and more than six times
that of Jamaica. The entire coast-line is about
1500 miles, and is indented with many bays and
inlets, some of them affording good harbours.
Within the gulf and to the north of Port-au-Prince
is Gonaive, and there is an inlet at Mole St. Nicholas
and another on the north coast at Cape Haitien.
Farther east is Manzanillo Bay, about the middle
of the north coast Puerto Plata, and near the eastern
end of the island the bays of Escocesas and Samana,
separated by a narrow peninsula, barely attached to
the mainland. The Bay of Samana, which is about
thirty miles long by ten miles wide, is partly filled
with coral reefs, but it has ample spaces of deep
water and a liberal entrance channel.
On the southern coast the most important indentation
is that at Santo Domingo, where the Ozama
River empties, and the largest is formed by the two
bays of Ocoa and Neyba, which receive the waters
of the Y aqui Chico. On the southern shore of the
long peninsula in the south-west are Jacmel, Baianet,
St. Louis, and A u x Cayes, and on its northern or
gulf side are Jeremie and Baraderes. Here and there
are fringing reefs and islets besides those which obstruct
the Bay of Samana and the Gulf of Gonaive
at the two ends of the island. T he Ile-k-Vache,
which is nine miles long by two wide, lies off the south
shore of the south-west peninsula near St. Louis
Bay, with reefs between it and the coast. In the
extreme south, opposite Cape Beata, is the island of
Beata, five miles by two, amid a cluster of islets.
Within the western gulf in the Bay of Baraderes is
Great Cayemite, five miles by three. T he island of
Tortuga which lies off the north-western peninsula,
the original haunt of the buccaneers, is twenty-two
miles long and five miles wide. The island of Na-
vassa in the Windward Passage has been claimed by
Jamaica, and is only important for its guano deposits.
South of the eastern end of Haiti is the considerable
island of Saona, or Adamanay, fifteen miles b y three
and a half, and to the west of that, Catalina.
The island of Haiti is the culmination of the great
mountain system rising out of the depths of the
ocean in the Greater Antilles. It contains in the
interior grander and loftier heights than are to be
found anywhere in the United States east of the
Rocky Mountains. Running through the length of
the island from Mole St. Nicholas slightly south
of east to Cape Engaño, is an almost continuous
range, rising near the centre of the island to an
altitude of 9000 feet or more in the loftiest peaks of
the Sierra de Cibao, where that old Carib cacique