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.