Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Island Of Cuba, Over More Than Four-Fifths Of Its Surface, Is
Composed Of Low Lands.
The soil is covered with secondary and tertiary
formations, formed by some rocks of gneiss-granite, syenite and
euphotide.
The knowledge obtained hitherto of the geologic
configuration of the country, is as unsatisfactory as what is known
respecting the relative age and nature of the soil. It is only
ascertained that the highest group of mountains lies at the
south-eastern extremity of the island, between Cape Cruz, Punta Maysi,
and Holguin. This mountainous part, called the Sierra or Las Montanas
del Cobre (the Copper Mountains), situated north-west of the town of
Santiago de Cuba, appears to be about 1200 toises in height. If this
calculation be correct, the summits of the Sierra would command those
of the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, and the peaks of La Selle and La
Hotte in the island of San Domingo. The Sierra of Tarquino, fifty
miles west of the town of Cuba, belongs to the same group as the
Copper Mountains. The island is crossed from east-south-east to
west-north-west by a chain of hills, which approach the southern coast
between the meridians of La Ciudad de Puerto Principe and the Villa
Clara; while, further to the westward towards Alvarez and Matanzas,
they stretch in the direction of the northern coast. Proceeding from
the mouth of the Rio Guaurabo to the Villa de la Trinidad, I saw on
the north-west, the Lomas de San Juan, which form needles or horns
more than 300 toises high, with their declivities sloping regularly to
the south.
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