PORTO RICO is the summit of an oceanic mountain. The great mountain range of the Antilles embraces Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo,Porto Rico, Jamaica and a number of small islands to the eastward, and it includes also a mountain chain that is now entirely submerged, and that extends westward under the ocean toward the Isthmus of Panama. It rises a little north of Porto Rico, almost vertically from the depths of the ocean, 27,000 feet to sea level, then on up to various heights in the islands of the West Indies, its greatest altitude being 11,300 feet, in Mount Tina, Santo Domingo. This means that the West Indian islands are simply the "protruding tips of the mightiest and most precipitous mountain rang in the world," which has its foundations in the bottom of the ocean, and which pushes up above the: surface of the water, reaching heights which, from bases to summits, are nearly 10,000 feet higher than Mount Everest in the Himalayas. The immense depths of water on either side of this wonderful ocean mountain range are the greatest known. There was a submergence years ago of a vast amount of the original land area of this mountain chain – this submerged land being thought by some writers to be the "Lost Atlantis" – and, while the ocean rolled for centuries over this sunken land, it became covered with a deposit of shells and sea animals. Then, in the upheavals of the earth, parts of it were raised high above the water – much higher than today – so that solid land perhaps extended as far as to the mainland of South America. There is a great difference of opinion among scientists about this matter, but it makes an appeal to the imagination, and we like to believe it. Those geologists that favored the idea called the vast area of land then exposed and connecting the two continents, "the Windward Bridge." Then came another subsidence of land until the Islands were simply tiny pinnacles above the deep, and these were covered with coral deposit, and, finally, with vegetation and animal life. Volcano, earthquake, coral insect, arid wild bird all had a share in the formation of these beautiful islands as we see them today.

Porto Rico is the most eastern and the smallest of the Great Antilles. It is shaped like a box, with a length of nearly 100 miles and a breadth of about 35. Its area is something over 3,600 square miles. The surface of the island is, for the most part, an assembly of mountains, ridges, hills, and peaks, varied by deep valleys, high table-lands, and steep canyons. The highest peak, EI Yunque (The Anvil), near the eastern end of the island, is not quite 4,000 feet in height, but the scenic beauty of Porto Rico is unrivaled by that of any of its sister islands, on account of the precipitous character of the mountain ranges. The range, known as the Cordilleras, has an average altitude of only about 2,500 feet, but it is made up of spurs, ridges, isolated peaks, and abrupt slopes that give superb scenic effects. The traveler who takes to the mountain trails will find wild beauties and adventurous trails not exceeded in "thrill" even by those of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierras.