The third largest river is the Neiba or Yaque del Sur, which rises
near the sources of the Yaque del Norte and pursues a southerly
direction for some 180 miles, emptying into Neiba Bay. The repetition
of geographical means is one of the peculiarities of Santo Domingo.
Thus there are two rivers and a mountain named Yaque, several
mountains named Cucurucho, a mountain-range and two cities named
Macoris while in a host of minor instances rivers, mountains and
districts in different parts of the country have identical names. The
repetition of names seems all the more curious as the Dominicans have
not hesitated to change historic names of towns and streets. The Yaque
del Sur, or Neiba River, receives several copious affluents, the
largest one being the San Juan River. Much of the lumber exported at
Barahona is floated down the Yaque and the river is navigable about 20
miles for flat-bottomed boats, though rapids and rocky ledges
interpose obstacles.
The other rivers of the southern part of Santo Domingo are much
smaller. The principal one is the Ozama, at the mouth of which the
capital city is located. This river is about 60 miles in length and
carries a surprising amount of water. Being navigable by barges for 9
miles from its mouth and by canoes for 15 miles, it forms an important
avenue of supply for Santo Domingo City. In the three miles from its
junction with the Isabela to the sea, its depth is about 24 feet, but
over the sandbar at its mouth but 15 feet. Two rivers in the
southeastern peninsula, the Macoris and the Soco furnish valuable
outlets for the products of the sugar estates on their banks. A number
of Dominican streams offer peculiarities. In the mountains there are
brooks which gush out of the hillside, merrily ripple on for miles and
vanish into the ground as mysteriously as they came. A number of coast
streams sink into the sand of the beach, just before reaching the
ocean. The Brujuelas River, which rises on the edge of the great
plains, northwest of Bayaguana, flows south 25 miles through the
plains and disappears in the ground a mile from the sea. Most streams
ordinarily insignificant and innocent looking, are in a surprisingly
short space of time converted by rains into raging torrents. The most
formidable of these torrential rivers is the Nizao which flows into
the Caribbean Sea near Point Palenque. In the lower part of this
river's course its bed is about a mile wide, of which only a small
portion is covered by the several branches of the river, the remainder
being taken up with sandbanks, gravel beds, marshy tracts and stagnant
bayous; and so frequently and erratically does the river change its
channels, and to such sudden rises is it subject, that the local
authorities are obliged to keep guides stationed on its banks almost
continuously, in order to direct travelers across.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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