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The most ancient part of the island is the central mountain range, also a series of protuberances in the Samana peninsula, the nucleus of the Baboruco mountains and a single point in the northern coast range near Puerto Plata.
The peninsula south of the Baboruco Mountains is an uneven plateau. In the very center of the Republic, surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains of the central group, is Constanza Valley, rich but to-day almost inaccessible.
This part of the country, the Baboruco peninsula, is very sparsely inhabited. In the beginning of the nineteenth century it was the abode of maroons, half-savage fugitive slaves and their descendants. Four miles to the southwest of Cape Beata lies Beata Island, sloping down from an elevation in the south to a long point in the north.
The modern lands are the coast plains and the small terraces on the south of the central range and on the south of the Baboruco mountains, the Maguana, Azua and Neiba valleys, small areas on the north coast at the foot of the mountains, and the marshes and Yuna River delta at the head of Samana Bay.
It rises on the western bank of the Neiba River and runs west parallel with the central chain, into Haitian territory. Among its principal peaks is Mt. Panso, 6200 feet high. The fifth principal range, situated in the extreme southwest of the Republic, is known as the Baboruco Range, and sometimes as Maniel de los Negros.
The Neiba Valley, situated in the southwestern portion of the Republic between the Neiba and the Baboruco Mountains is more regular. It is part of the valley which stretches from Neiba Bay, in Santo Domingo, to Port-au-Prince in Haiti. The Dominican portion is 65 miles long by 12 miles wide, and over one-half of its area is covered by the waters of Lake Enriquillo.
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