The Saint Elizabeth region
St. Elizabeth, Jamaica's second-largest parish, is located in the southwest of the island, in the county of Cornwall. Its capital, Black River, is
located at the mouth of the Black River stream, the longest on the island.
The parish covers an area of 1212.4 sq km, making it Jamaica's second largest parish, behind Saint Ann's 1212.6 sq km.
The northern and northeastern parts of the parish are mountainous. There are three mountain ranges — the Nassau Mountains to the north-east, the Lacovia
Mountains to the west of the Nassau Mountains, and the Santa Cruz Mountains which, running south, divide the wide plain to end in a precipitous drop of
1600 feet at Lovers' Leap. The central and southern sections form an extensive plain divided by the Santa Cruz Mountains. A large part of the lowlands
is covered by morass, but it still provides grazing land for horses and mules.
The main river in the parish is Black River, and measuring 53.4 kilometres (33 miles), it is the longest river in Jamaica. It is navigable for about 40
kilometres (25 miles). The river has its source in the mountains of Manchester where it rises and flows west as the border between Manchester and Trelawny
then goes underground. It reappears briefly in several surrounding towns, but reemerges near Balaclava and tumbles down gorges to the plain known as the
Savannah, through the Great Morass and to the sea at Black River, the capital of the parish.
There are many limestone formations in the parish, resulting in the formation of 44 caves. These include Mexico, the longest in the island; Yardley
Chase Caves near the foot of Lovers' Leap; Wallingford Caves near Balaclava, famous for the fossil remains of large extinct rodents; and Peru Cave
near Goshen which has stalactites and stalagmites. Mineral deposits include bauxite, antimony, white limestone, clay, peat and silica sand which is used
to manufacture glass................
Adopted from and read more at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Elizabeth_Parish_Jamaica |
