Four rivers are crossed, which
carry comparatively little water, and the mouths of which are
obstructed by sand bars caused by the prevailing north and east winds.
As a result of these bars the streams flood the country and form large
stagnant lakes, that have effectively prevented a settlement of the
region. Some seven miles before reaching the mouth of the Gran Estero
there is a little town called Matanzas, a kind of headquarters for
turtle fishermen and which, though the entrance to its bay is almost
closed by a sand bank, is often visited by coasting schooners that
call for cacao from nearby plantations. What is called the Gran
Estero is a network of bayous and channels, some upon the surface,
others subterranean, which extends from the Yuna River to the ocean
and traverses the marshy plain forming the neck of the Samana
peninsula. It is apparent that the Yuna River centuries ago emptied
into the ocean and that what is to-day the Samana peninsula was once
an island separated by a broad channel from the mainland, to which it
became united by the gradual rise of the land and by the alluvium
deposited by the river.
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