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.
In the central mountain range is found a nucleus of eruptive rocks
which have raised and twisted sedimentary strata, covering them and
forcing them aside. This nucleus is not a regular feature of the whole
length of the chain, but is an irregular mass beginning about at the
middle, in the region of the Jaina River, and extending in a series of
parallel lines obliquely across the backbone of the range to the
border of the Republic and on into Haiti. Among these rocks and bent
and broken by them are the slates, conglomerates and calcareous rocks
which are found in the mountains and over the whole surface of the
island. The character of the central range and the inclination of the
strata of cretaceous rocks make it probable that the island emerged
from the sea in the eocene period, its area being then confined to the
extent of the central mountain chain, with a few small islands to the
south, one or more islets to the northeast, comprising the older peaks
of the Samana range, and a small archipelago to the southeast, where
the hills of Seibo now are.
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