North of the mountain range the lowland belt is very much narrower and in some places reaches a height of 200 feet as a rule deeply dissected, so that in places only the level of the hill tops mark the position of the original plain.

The two piedmont plains of Pinar del Rio unite at the eastern extremity of the Organos Mountains and extend over the greater part of the provinces of Havana and Matanzas and the western half of Santa Clara. The divide as a rule is near the center of this plain, although the land has a gradual slope from near its northern margin towards the south.

In the neighborhood of Havana, the elevation varies between 300 and 400 feet, continuing eastward to Cardenas. The streams flowing north have lowered their channels as the land rose, and the surface drained by them has become deeply dissected, while the streams flowing toward the south have been but little affected by the elevation and remain generally in very narrow channels.

East of Cardenas the general elevation of the plain is low, sloping gradually both north and south from the axis of the Island. Considerable areas of this plain are found among the various mountain groups in the eastern half of Santa Clara province, beyond which it extends over the greater part of Camaguey and into Oriente. Here it reaches the northern coast between isolated mountain groups, extending as far east as Nipe Bay, and toward the south merges into the great Cauto Valley.

From Cabo Cruz the plain extends along the northern base of the Sierra Maestra to the head of the Cauto valley. Its elevation near Manzanillo is about 200 feet, whence it increases to 640 feet at El Cristo. In the central section of Oriente, the Cauto River and its tributaries have cut channels into this plain from 50 to 200 feet in depth. In the lower part of the valley these channels are sometimes several miles across and are occupied by alluvial flats or river bottoms. They decrease in width towards the east and in the upper part of the valley become narrow gorges.

A large part of this plain of Cuba, especially in the central provinces, is underlaid by porous limestone, through which the surface waters have found underground passages. This accounts for the fact that large areas are occasionally devoid of flowing surface streams. The rain water sinks into the ground as soon as it falls, and after flowing long distances under ground, emerges in bold springs, such as those of the Almandares that burst out of the river bank some eight miles south of the City of Havana. Engineers of the rope and cordage plant, just north of the City of Matanzas, while boring for water, found unexpectedly a swift, running river, only ten feet below the surface, that has given them an inexhaustible supply of excellent water.

Most of the plains of Cuba above indicated have been formed by the erosion of its surface, and are covered with residual soil derived from the underlying limestones. Where they consist of red or black clays they are exceedingly fertile. Certain portions of the plains, especially those bordering on the southern side of the mountains of Pinar del Rio, are covered with a layer of sand and gravel, washed down from the adjoining highlands, and are inferior in fertility to soils derived from the erosion of limestone. Similar superficial deposits are met in the vicinity of Cienfuegos, and in other sections of the Island, where the plain forms a piedmont adjacent to highlands composed of silicious rocks.

CHAPTER III

THE CLIMATE OF CUBA

SINCE on the climate of country depends largely its healthfulness, nothing perhaps is of greater importance, especially to the man who wishes to find some place where he may build his permanent home and raise his family; to him this feature above all demands careful consideration.

The most striking and perhaps the most important fact in regard to the climate of Cuba is its freedom from those extremes of temperature which are considered prejudicial to health in any country. The difference between the mean annual temperature of winter and that of summer is only twelve degrees, or from 76 degrees to 88 degrees. Even between the coldest days of winter, when the mercury once went as low as 58 degrees, and the extreme limit of summer, registered as 92 degrees, we have a difference of only 34 degrees; and the extremes of summer are seldom noticed, since the fresh northeast trade winds coming from the Atlantic sweep across the Island, carrying away with them the heated atmosphere of the interior.

The fact that the main axis of the Island, with its seven hundred mile stretch of territory, extends from southeast to northwest, almost at right angles to the general direction of the wind, plays a very important part in the equability of Cuba’s climate. Then again, the Island is completely surrounded by oceans, the temperature of which remains constant, and this plays an important part in preventing extremes of heat or cold.

Ice, of course, cannot form, and frost is found only on the tops of the tallest mountain ranges. The few cold days during winter, when the thermometer may drop to 60 after sundown, are the advance waves of “Northers” that sweep down from the Dakotas, across Oklahoma and the great plains of Texas, eventually reaching Cuba, but only after the sting of the cold has been tempered in its passage of six hundred miles across the Gulf of Mexico.

A temperature of 60 degrees in Cuba is not agreeable to the natives, or even to those residents who once lived in northern climes. This may be due to the fact that life in the Tropics has a tendency to thin the blood, and to render it less resistant to low temperature; and also because Cuban residences are largely of stone, brick or reinforced concrete, with either tile or marble floors, and have no provision whatever against cold. And, although the walls are heavy, the windows, doors and openings are many times larger than those of residences in the United States, hence the cold cannot readily be excluded as in other countries. There is said to be but one fire-place in the Island of Cuba, and that was built in the beautiful home of an American, near Guayabal, just to remind him, he said, of the country whence he came.

Again in the matter of rainfall and its bearing on the climate of a country, Cuba is very fortunate. The rains all come in the form of showers during the summer months, from the middle of May until the end of October, and serve to purify and temper the heat of summer. On the other hand, the cooler months of winter are quite dry, and absolutely free from the chilling rains, sleets, snows, mists and dampness, that endanger the health, if not the life, of those less fortunate people who dwell in latitudes close to 40 degrees.

Cloudy, gloomy days are almost unknown in Cuba, and the sun can be depended upon to shine for at least thirty days every month, and according to the testimony of physicians nothing is better than sunshine to eliminate the germs of contagious diseases. Hence we can truthfully says that in the matter of climate and health, Cuba asks no favor of any country on earth.

CHAPTER IV

PROVINCE OF HAVANA

THE Province of Havana, with its area of 3,171 square miles, is the smallest in Cuba, and yet, owing to the city of Havana, capital of the Republic, it plays a very important part in the social, political and economic life of the Island.

Geographically, it is the pivotal province of Cuba, since the narrowest place across the long arch-like stretch of the Island is found along the border between Havana and Pinar del Rio, where only twenty-two miles lie between the Mexican Gulf and the Caribbean Sea. The province proper measures about thirty miles from north to south, with an average width of fifty-five.

The topography of Havana includes a varied assortment of hills, ridges, plateaus, valleys and plains, so that the scenery never becomes monotonous; and with the numerous automobile drives that radiate from the Capital, shaded with the luxuriant foliage of royal palms, bamboo and other forms of tropical vegetation, it offers to the tourist and traveler an almost endless panorama of charming change and pleasant surprise. The average altitude of Havana province is slightly lower than that of either Matanzas or Pinar del Rio, bordering on the east and west.

Columbus, on his second voyage of discovery, cruised along the southern coast of Cuba until he reached a point a little west of the Indian village of Batabano. Here he heard of another island not far to the south. Leaving the coast he threaded his way through shoals and scattered keys, that even up to the present time have been only imperfectly charted, and finally, on July 12, 1494, landed at some place on the northern shore. He called this island the Evangelist. It is the largest of a chain of keys running parallel with this part of the south coast, irregular in form with an area of approximately eight hundred square miles, and forms the southern half of the judicial district of Havana.

Columbus remained here, taking on fresh water and wood, until July 25, and then began his return voyage east, sailing over shoals that displayed so many varying shades of green, purple and white, that his mariners are said to have become alarmed.

Some twenty years later Diego Velasquez cruised along the southern coast to a point west of the Guines River, where he founded a city, which he called San Cristobal de la Havana. The fifty odd colonists whom he left behind soon became dissatisfied with the general surroundings of the spot which he had selected for their abiding place and moved over to the north shore of the Island near the mouth of the Almandares River, which they found in every way more agreeable as a place of permanent residence. In 1519 a second move was made to the Bay of Carenas, where they located permanently on the harbor, destined soon after to become the most important port of the West Indies.

The inhabitants of that irregular group of palm thatched huts little dreamed that four centuries later the Port of Havana would have a foreign commerce whose tonnage is excelled by only one other in the Western Hemisphere.

With the exception of the low, grass-covered plains of the southern shore, the topography of the Province of Havana is undulating and picturesque. The northern shore, throughout most of its length, especially from the City of Havana west to Matanzas, rises more or less abruptly from the beach until it reaches a rather uneven plateau, several hundred feet above the level of the sea.

In the northwestern corner, some two miles back from the shore line, the “Pan” or “Loma of Guayabon,” which is really a continuation of the Organ Mountains of Pinar del Rio, forms a palm covered, picturesque ridge, six hundred feet in height, extending from east to west for several miles. Along the southern edge of this range of hills, runs a beautiful automobile drive, connecting the capital with the city of Pinar del Rio, the wonderful valley of the Vinales, Guane and the extreme western end of the Island. A drive leading from the city of Guanajay extends fifty miles northwest to the Bay of Bahia Honda, chosen originally as a coaling station for the Navy, but never occupied.

In the east central part of the province lie two small mountains known as the Tetas de Bejucal, and from them, extending in an easterly direction into the Province of Matanzas, are broken ridges, plateaus, and hills that form one of the connecting links between the Organ group of mountains in the west, and the still higher cordilleras of the Province of Oriente in the extreme east.

With the exception of the coastal plain running along the southern boundary, the remainder of the province is undulating, more or less hilly, and quite picturesque in its contour. A little east of the Tetas de Bejucal, from the top of the divide that forms the water shed of the province, looking south, one sees below him the Valley of the Guines, known as the Garden of Havana. Thousands of acres are here spread out before the view, all irrigated by the Guines River, whose source is in the never failing springs that gush from the base of a mountain ridge in the east center of the Province.

The rich soil of this section, furnished as it is with water throughout the year, produces a marvelous yield of sugar cane, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, egg plants and other vegetables, affording an inexhaustible supply during the winter to the capital, forty miles north. Engineers are making a study of this river so that its water may be more economically distributed and the acreage of irrigated lands greatly increased.

In the southwestern quarter of Havana Province, known as the Tumbadero District, experiments were first made in growing tobacco under cheese cloth. These were so successful that in a few years Tumbadero, or Havana wrappers, became famous for their fineness of texture, and within a short time thousands of acres in that section were converted into fields, or vegas, whose returns in tobacco leaf product were excelled in value only by those of the celebrated Vuelta Abajo district of Pinar del Rio. The towns of Alquizar and Guira de Melina were built and sustained by the reputation of the Tumbadero wrapper, and the tobacco district was soon extended well up into the center of the province, including Salud, Rincon, San Antonio de los Banos, and Santiago de las Vegas. In the northwestern corner of the Island, the rich valley extending south and east of the “Pan de Guayabon,” including the towns of Caimito, Hoyo Colorado, and Guayabal, has recently rivaled the Tumbadero district in the excellence of its tobacco, and excels in citrus fruit.

Over three-fourths of Havana Province have been blessed with a remarkably fertile soil, and although much of it has been under cultivation for three centuries or more, with the judicious use of fertilizers, the returns, either in fruit or vegetables, are very gratifying to the small farmer.

Along the delightfully shaded automobile drives that radiate from the Capital in nearly all directions, the price of land within thirty miles of the city has risen so rapidly that it is being given over almost entirely to suburban homes and country estates, maintained by the wealthy residents of the capital. In a climate where frost is unknown, where the foliage remains fresh and green throughout the winter, it is comparatively easy to convert an ordinary farm into a veritable garden of Eden.

One of the most beautiful places on the Island within the last few years has been created by General Mario G. Menocal, President of the Republic. It covers several hundred acres and is known as “El Chico,” or the “Little One.” A commanding residence of Cuban colonial architecture, standing a little back from the road, has been surrounded with beautiful drives, lined with every variety of fruit tree, flower and ornamental plant known to Cuba. The green lawn sweeps up to the stately building occupied by President Menocal as a residence or country seat in summer. On this place may be found many varieties of poultry, recently imported from the United States for experimental purposes, in which the President is deeply interested. Competent gardeners and caretakers are maintained, with the result that “El Chico,” where General Menocal and his family spend much of their time, has become one of the show places of the Province.

Col. Jose Villalon, Secretary of Public Works, and Col. Charles Hernandez, Director of Posts and Telegraph, have pretty country estates located west of Havana, not far from El Chico.

The soil of the Province, throughout most of its extent, has been formed through the erosion of tertiary limestone, colored in many places a reddish brown of oxide of iron that has impregnated most of the soils of Cuba. Just south of Havana, serpentine has obtruded through the limestone along a belt some two or three miles in extent, and forms the round topped hills in evidence from the bay.

The greater part of Havana Province, when found by the Spaniards, was covered with forests of hard woods, that were gradually cut away during the centuries in which the land has been tilled. The trees, according to early records, included cedar, mahogany, acana, majagua and others, still found in the mountainous districts and those sections of Cuba not yet brought under cultivation. These valuable hard woods formed the posts, joists, rafters, doors and windows of nearly all the old-time residences of early days. Many buildings that have remained standing through centuries, have ceilings that are supported by heavy carved timbers of mahogany and give promise still of long years of service if permitted to remain.

The basic wealth of the province, as in nearly all other sections of Cuba, is dependent on agriculture, although since the inauguration of the Republic in 1902, manufacturing and various other industries are beginning to play a prominent part in her economical wealth.

In agricultural products, the Guines Valley previously referred to undoubtedly produces greater returns than any other similar lands in Cuba. Hundreds of thousands of crates of tomatoes, egg plants and other vegetables, that have been raised through the whiter month by irrigation, are shipped to the United States from December to April. Thousands of barrels of Irish potatoes from the Guines Valley, also, are sold in Philadelphia, New York and Boston during the month of March, at prices averaging four dollars per hundred weight.

In the Valley of Caimito, Guayabal and Hoyo Colorado, large crops of vegetables are shipped to the northern markets during the winter months, when good prices are assured. A certainty of profit, however, can only be depended on where irrigation from wells is secured.

Large acreages of pineapples are grown in the same district, although the center of the pineapple industry in Havana today is located about thirty miles east of the City, on the road to Matanzas. Over a million crates every year are shipped out of Havana to the northern markets between the middle of May and the middle of July.

It is probable that no section of either the West Indies or the United States offers greater opportunities for the canning industry than is found in Cuba at the present time, especially in the Province of Havana, where facilities for transportation are plentiful. A general canning and preserving plant, intelligently conducted, could be operated in this province throughout the entire year. In this way all of the surplus pineapples not shipped abroad could be utilized.

During the last few years several manufacturing industries have sprung up on the outskirts of Havana, all of which seem to be yielding satisfactory returns. Three large breweries are turning out a very good grade of beer that is disposed of throughout the Island. The plants are located in the suburbs of Havana, each surrounded by grounds rendered attractive by landscape gardeners and furnishing places for recreation and rest to both rich and poor on holidays, which are plentiful in Cuba. A large up-to-date bottling plant, located just west of the City, manufactures the containers for the output of the breweries.

Between the city of Havana and the suburb of Ceiba, a modern rubber tire and tube factory has been established, and is said to be working on full time with very satisfactory profits. Several large soap and perfume factories, recently established, are supplying the demand for these products with satisfaction, it is said, both to the manufacturer and the consumer.

A number of brick yards and tile factories are located not far from the City, the combined output of which is large. The erection of wooden buildings within the city limits of Havana is not tolerated. In fact they are not at all popular in Cuba since the climate is not conducive to the preservation of wood, aside from cedar and mahogany or other hard woods, which are too expensive for construction work. Limestone, easily worked, and of a fine quality for this climate, is found in abundance, hence it is that the vast amount of building going on at the present time in Cuba makes heavy demands on both this material and brick, for all constructive purposes.

Nature has again favored this Island in her large deposits of excellent cement-clay, limestone and sand, which are essential to the manufacture of cement. The Almandares factory located on the west bank of that river has long been in successful operation. Within the last year another large modern cement factory has been established on the eastern shores of the harbor of Mariel, twenty-five miles west of Havana, and today is turning out high-grade cement at the rate of six hundred barrels per day.

Local factories have had a monopoly of the match-making industry in Cuba for many years. Few, if any matches are imported from abroad, and may never be, owing to the fact that the people of Cuba prefer the wax taper match. Although short and rather inconvenient to those who are not accustomed to this miniature candle, the flame burns longer and persists more successfully in a breeze, hence it is probable that the Cuban match will hold its own against all competitors. Quite a revenue is derived from the penny stamp tax placed on each box of matches.

Large quantities of pine lumber are imported into Cuba from the Gulf cities, especially from South Pascagoula, Miss., and Mobile. This material is used throughout the island for interior work, sash, doors, blinds, etc. Unless covered with paint, hard pine is not very lasting in this climate, for which reasons, perhaps, show cases, fancy work and ornamental doors are usually built of the native cedar and majagua, which are practically impervious to either decay or attack from boring insects.

The most important industry of the Province, from the monetary viewpoint, at least, is the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes, which are produced in greater quantity in Havana and throughout the province than in any other part of the world. It is needless to state that the cigars made in Havana from the celebrated Vuelta Abajo leaf are shipped from this capital to all parts of the world, and may be found, it is said, on the private desk of every crowned head in Europe. Large shipments are made every year, also, to Japan and the Orient. Thousands of men and girls are employed in this industry, the value of which, in the export trade alone, amounts to over $30,000,000 a year.

The Province has but one harbor of any importance, the Bay of Havana, located near the center of the north coast. It covers several square miles, and although the entrance between the promontory of Morro and the Punta is only a few hundred yards across, the channel is deep, perfectly protected, and leads to an anchorage sufficient for large fleets of vessels. The shore portions of the main body of the harbor were rather shallow in early times, but during recent years have been well dredged up to the edge of the surrounding wharves, thus reclaiming a large amount of valuable land, and greatly increasing the capacity of the Bay for shipping purposes.

Since the inauguration of the Republic in 1902, a series of large, modern, perfectly equipped piers, built of concrete and iron, have been extended out from the shore line of the western side of the bay, so that the largest ships may now discharge and take on cargoes, eliminating thus, to a great extent, the custom of lightering which prevailed only a few years ago. Owing to the fact that nearly all the principal railroad systems of Cuba radiate from the Capital, each with a terminal system connecting with the wharves, the transportation facilities of this port are superior to any others in Cuba.

Steam and sail vessels are leaving Havana for different parts of the world every day in the year, and it is a fact of which the Republic has reason to be proud, that under normal conditions, or up to the beginning of the great war, a greater amount of tonnage entered and left the Harbor of Havana than that of any other city of the Western hemisphere, with the exception of New York. Dredging is still going on with new wharves in process of construction and projected, so that today frontage on the bay is valuable and hard to secure at any price.

Owing to its excellent transportation facilities and to the local market furnished by the City of Havana itself, the growing of fruits and vegetables, within a radius of one hundred miles from the capital, has proved more profitable than in other parts of the Island.

Although several small streams flow to the north and south of the dividing ridge, passing through the center of the Island, none of them, either in length or depth, could well be termed rivers.

The Almandares, that has its origin in a group of magnificent springs near the western center of the Province, meanders through a comparatively level valley, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, some three miles west of Havana Harbor. The mouth of this stream, with a depth of twelve or fourteen feet, accommodates schooners that come for sand and cement at the factory.

The Vento Springs, already referred to, are a most valuable asset of the City of Havana, since the abundant flow of water, that through skilful engineering has been conveyed some eight miles into the City, is of excellent quality. The quantity of water, with economy, is sufficient, according to engineering estimates, for a city of one or two millions.

In the latter part of the 16th century the Italian engineer Antonelli cut several ditches across the intercepting ridges and brought water from the Almandares River into the city of Havana, not only for domestic purposes but in sufficient quantity to supply the ships that dropped into port on their long voyages between Spain and the eastern coast of Mexico.

On November 7, 1887, the famous Spanish engineer D. Francisco Albear y Lara completed the present aqueduct and system of water works by which the springs of Vento are made to contribute to the present Havana, with its 360,000 inhabitants, a supply of excellent drinking water, although only a small portion of the flow is utilized.

Owing to the peculiar coral and soft limestone formation on which the soil of this province has been deposited, numerous lagoons and rivers flow beneath the surface at various depths, ranging from 30 to 300 feet. These, when found and tapped, furnish an abundance of splendid fresh water, seldom contaminated with objectionable mineral matter. At the Experimental Station at Santiago tiago de las Vegas, a magnificent spring of water was discovered at a little over one hundred feet in depth.

Other springs have formed a shallow lagoon just south of the city of Caimito, the exit from which is furnished by a small swift running stream, that after a surface flow of five or six miles suddenly plunges down into the earth some forty feet or more, disappearing entirely from view and never reappearing, as far as is known. Like many other streams of this nature, it may come to the surface in the salt waters of the Caribbean, off the south coast.

The disappearance of this river takes place within a hundred yards of the railroad station, in the town of San Antonio de los Banos, and furnishes rather an interesting sight for the tourist who is not familiar with this peculiar phenomenon.

Although the City of Havana is considered one of the most delightful winter resorts in the Western Hemisphere, there are many who claim, and with reason perhaps, that the Capital has many advantages also as a place in which to spend the summer. Many visitors from the Gulf States in summer have been loath to leave Cuba.

The mean annual temperature of Havana varies only twelve degrees throughout the year. During the winter the mercury plays between the two extremes of 58 and 78 degrees, with an average of about 70. During the summer the temperature varies from 75 to 88 degrees, although there are occasional records where the mercury has reached 92 degrees. Even at this temperature, however, no great inconvenience is experienced, since the cool, strong, northeast winds, that blow from the Atlantic, straight across the Island, sweep into the Caribbean the overheated atmosphere that otherwise would hang over the land as it does in the interior of large continents, even in latitudes as high as northern Canada.

This continual strong current of air, that blows from the Atlantic during at least 300 days in the year, with its healthful, bracing influence, tempers the heat of the sun that in latitude 22 is directly overhead, and probably prevents sun strokes and heat prostrations, which are absolutely unknown in Havana at any time of the year.

During the first Government of Intervention, American soldiers in the months of July and August, 1900, put shingled roofs on barracks and quarters built at Camp Columbia, in the suburbs of Havana, without the slightest discomfort. Officers who questioned the men with more or less anxiety, since they were not accustomed to the tropics, were laughed at for their fears, the soldiers declaring that, “although the sun was a little hot, the breeze was fine, and they didn’t feel any heat.” Of the thousands of horses and mules brought from Kentucky and Missouri not one has ever fallen, or suffered from heat prostration in the Island of Cuba.

The nights are invariably cool, so much so that even in July and August, during the early morning hours, a light covering is not uncomfortable. There is every reason to believe that in the near future summer resorts will be successfully established on many of the elevated plateaus and mountainous parks in various sections of the Island.

The Province of Havana, even during the times of Spanish rule, had three or four fine military drives radiating to the south and west of the Capital. Since the inauguration of the Republic, these highways, shaded with the evergreen laurel, the almendra, flamboyant and many varieties of palm, including the royal and the cocoanut, have been converted into magnificent automobile drives, to which have been added many kilometers of splendidly paved roads known as carreteras, which connect the towns and villages of the interior with each other as well as the capital with the principal cities of other sections of Cuba.

Along these highways every three or four miles, are found road repair stations supported by the Department of Public Works, in which laborers to whom the keeping up of the road is assigned, live, and which shelter the necessary rollers and road builders under their direction. These stations are well built, well kept, and sometimes rather picturesque in appearance. Their presence should be a guarantee of the permanence and extension of good road-building in Cuba.

The political, social and commercial heart of the Republic of Cuba centers in the city of Havana, hence the province shares more directly in the national life and prosperity than any other. Cables, wireless stations and passenger ships of various lines coming and going every day in the year, maintain constant touch with outside world centers.

The Presidency, the various departments of the Federal Government, the Army, Navy, higher Courts, Congress and Universities all pursue their activities at the capital. The surrounding province, therefore, although the smallest of the Island, will probably always remain the most important political division of the Republic.

CHAPTER V

PROVINCE OF PINAR DEL RIO

TOPOGRAPHICALLY, the Province of Pinar del Rio is perhaps the most picturesquely beautiful in the Island. Owing also to its variety of soils, mahogany red, jet black, mulatto or brown, and the grey sands of the south and west, Pinar del Rio offers marvellous opportunities for many agricultural industries. Tobacco, of which it produces over $30,000,000 worth annually, has always been the most important product of this section of Cuba.

This Province, with its area of 5,764 square miles, owing to the fact, perhaps, that it lay west of Havana, the capital, and thus outside of the line of traffic and settlement that began in the eastern end of the Island, has played historically and politically a comparatively small part in the story of the Pearl of the Antilles. Its capital, Pinar del Rio, located about one hundred and twenty-five miles west of Havana, on the Western Railroad, was founded in 1776, and claims today a population of 12,000 people.

The delightful aroma and flavor of the tobacco grown in the section of which this city is the center, and whose quality has been equaled in no other place, has rendered this province, in one way at least, famous throughout the entire civilized world.

The topography of the province is more distinctly marked than that of any other in Cuba. The greater part of the surface, including the entire southern half, together with the coast plains between the mountains and the Gulf of Mexico, is quite level. Rising almost abruptly from the flat surface, we have the western terminus of the great central chain of mountains that forms the backbone of the Island. This begins near the shores of Guadiana Bay and extends in a northeasterly direction throughout almost the entire length of the Province. The main or central ridge of the Pinar del Rio system is known as the Sierra de Los Organos, or Organ Mountains, owing probably to the fact that the sides of these mountains, in many places, form great perpendicular fluted columns, whose giant organ like shafts reach upward for hundreds of feet.

From this western terminal point the mountains rapidly widen out like an arrow head, so that between San Juan y Martinez on the south, and Malos Aguas on the north, the foot hills approach close to both coasts. On the south, however, they quickly recede towards the Capital, some twenty miles north, whence they continue throughout the northern center of the Province in a line more or less direct, leaving the southern half a great, broad level plain.

On the north coast, from the harbor of San Gayetano east, the mountains with their adjacent foothills follow more closely the shore line, until at Bahia Honda, sixty miles west of the city of Havana, they come almost down to the head of the harbor, gradually receding a little from this point east, until the chain disappears some ten miles west of the boundary line that separates Pinar del Rio from Havana.

Strange as it may seem, nature in her mysterious caprice has twice repeated the form of a shoe at separate points in the outline of the south coast of Cuba. The first, known as the Peninsula of the Zapata, with its definitely formed heel and toe, is in the Province of Santa Clara; and again a second perfect shoe; that resembles with its high heel set well forward a slightly exaggerated type of the shoe so popular with the women of Cuba and all Latin American countries, forms the extreme western terminus of the Island and is almost separated from the mainland by a chain of shallow lakes. It extends from Cape Francis on the east to Cape San Antonio, some seventy-five miles west, with an average width of only about ten miles. Just in front of the heel we have the indentation known as the Bay of Corrientes, while on the opposite side, or top of the foot, lies the quiet and protected Bay of Guadiana. The lighthouse of Cape San Antonio is located on the extreme western point. From the toe to the heel, following the arch of the foot for forty miles, runs a low range of hills that introduce the mountain system of Cuba, developing later into the great central chain that continues to the other end of the Island.

Between the City of Pinar del Rio and Vinales, the range is broken up into three parallel ridges, the central one composed of limestone, while the other are of slates, schists and sand. The highest peak, known as the Pan de Guajaibon, has an altitude that has been variously estimated from 2500 to 3,000 feet. It rises abruptly from the narrow plain of the north coast, about eight miles, southwest of the harbor of Bahia Honda, and is difficult of ascent. The various parks, plateaus and circular basins or sumideros, often of large extent, with subterranean exits, form strangely picturesque spots that burst on the traveler, mounted on his sturdy sure footed pony, unexpectedly, and if a lover of scenery he will leave with sincere regret.

One of these charming valleys, known as Vinales, lies between two prominent ridges, about twenty miles north of the City of Pinar del Rio, and is in many respects the most glorious bit of scenery in all the West Indies. A splendid macadamized automobile drive winds from the capital up along the foot hills to the crest of the ridge, whence it descends, crosses the valley, cuts through the northernmost ridge, and continues on to La Esperanza, on the north shore of the Province.

Rex Beach, the novelist, writer and traveler, looked down from his auto into the valley for the first time in 1916. Stopping the machine suddenly, he jumped to the ground and stood spellbound, looking down into that beautiful basin, over a thousand feet below. After a moment’s pause he exclaimed: “I have visited every spot of interest from northern Alaska to Panama, and traveled through many countries, but never before in my life have I met anything so picturesquely, dramatically beautiful as this valley, this dream garden that lies at our feet. There is nothing like it in the Western Hemisphere, probably not in all the world.”

The length of the basin is not over twenty miles while its width varies from three to ten. The floor is level, covered with rich waving grass, watered by a little stream, that comes meandering through the valley, dives beneath a mountain range, afterwards to reappear from a grotto-like opening on the northern side, beyond the valley, whence its waters eventually find their home in the Gulf of Mexico.

The peculiar, almost unreal, indentations of the northern ridge are silhouetted so vividly against the sky above that from the southern shore of the valley one is inclined at times to believe them fantastically formed clouds. The remarkable feature, however, of Vinales lies in the peculiar round-topped mountains that rise abruptly from the level surface below, and project themselves perpendicularly into the air, to a height varying from 1,200 to 2,000 feet.

Unique imposing formations, resulting from millions of years of tropical rains and rock erosion, are covered with dense forests of strange palms and thousands of rare plants, whose varied foliage seems to be peculiar to this isolated spot in the western central part of Pinar del Rio. These singular dome-like lomas of Vinales, looming up so unexpectedly from the valley below, are usually accessible from one side, although but very few people seem to have taken the trouble to climb to their summits. All of these mountains and foothills, composed of limestone formations, are honeycombed with caves, some of them of rare beauty.

Shortly after the founding of the Republic, a group of men composed mostly of naturalists and scientists, representing the Smithsonian and like institutions in the United States, together with several Cuban enthusiasts in the study of nature, spent several months studying the fauna and flora of the Vinales Valley. In fact they rambled and worked through most of the line of foothills that traverse Pinar del Rio between its central ridges and the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the party were specialists in tertiary fossils, others in the myriad varieties of submarine life. These latter spent considerable time studying the various species of radiata, mollusca, crustacea and allied forms of life on the inner side of the long coral barrier reef which parallels the shore of the province of Pinar del Rio, from Bahia Honda to Cape San Antonio. Many new varieties of the snail family, also, were discovered and studied.

In this connection it may be stated that a very rare variety of the palm family, the Microoyco Calocoma, commonly called the Cork Palm, found only in Pinar del Rio, seems, owing perhaps to some unfavorable change in climate or surrounding conditions, to be disappearing from earth. Not more than seventy specimens are known to exist and these are all growing in an isolated spot in the mountains back of Consolacion del Sur. Several of them have been transplanted to the grounds of the Government Experimental Station for study and care. One also has been removed to the grounds of the President’s home at El Chico. The palms are not tall, none reaching a height of more than twenty feet, with a diameter of perhaps eight inches.

This rare palm is one of those miraculous survivals of the carboniferous age that by some strange protecting influence have survived all the great seismic upheaval and geological changes wrought on the earth’s surface during the millions of years since the epoch, when this and similar varieties of carboniferous plants were the kings of the vegetable world. Their dead forms are frequently found imprinted in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and Brazil, but only in Cuba has this family of ancient palms persisted, mute survival of an antiquity that probably antedates any other living thing on earth. So slow is the growth of this remarkable plant, that only one crown of leaves appears each year. By simply counting the circles of scars left by the fallen leaves, it is clearly demonstrated that many of these remnants of a remote geological past were living in the mountains of Pinar del Rio long before Columbus dreamed of another continent. Some of them are today over a thousand years old, and may have antedated the fall of Rome, if not the birth of Christ on earth.

A strange variety of indigenous wild legumes, belonging probably to the cow-pea tribe, is found growing luxuriantly in the low sandy soil of the southwestern coast. The vine forms a splendid cover crop of which cattle are very fond, while the peas, although small, are delicious eating. Plants of the lily family are found in great quantities in some of the fresh water lagoons of this Province, the ashes of which furnish 60% of high-grade potash.

Back in the mountains of Pinar del Rio, an exploring party from the Experimental Station came across, most unexpectedly, a little group of five immense black walnut trees. No one knows whence came the seed from which they sprung, since the district has never been settled, and the black walnut is not known in any other part of the Island. It is quite probable that many, if not all, of the forest trees of a commercial value in the Gulf States, and perhaps further north, would thrive in Cuba if planted there.

There is much fine, valuable hard-wood timber in the mountain ranges of Pinar del Rio, between Vinales and Bahia Honda, but lack of facility for the removal to the coast will probably cause it to remain unmolested for some years to come.

The extreme length of Pinar del Rio, from southwest to northeast, in a straight line, is nearly two hundred miles, while its average width is fifty. The rivers and streams all have their sources in the central divide, and flow to the north and south, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. None of these, of course, are available for navigation more than a few miles up from their mouths, and while serving as drainage streams during the rainy season, many of them, unfortunately, cease to flow during the dry months of February and March.

Some of them, with sources in large springs, back in the mountains, could be used very advantageously, with small expense, for irrigation purposes, thus rendering adjoining lands, especially in the tobacco and vegetable district, doubly valuable. With the control of the water supply, the profit to be made from these lands, on which three or four crops may be gathered a year, would seem almost incredible, especially if compared with the returns of similar lands in the United States.

As an illustration, in any of the rich sandy soils bordering streams like the Rio Hondo or Las Cabezas of the south coast, or the Manimani or the Mulata of the north coast, whose waters are always available for irrigation purposes, in January, February or March corn and cow peas may be planted on the same ground in the early spring. Crops from these may be gathered in late May or June, and the same land planted in carita beans, sweet potatoes or squash, that may be removed in September, leaving the field to be again planted in October with tobacco, peanuts, yuca, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, egg plants or okra, that when gathered in January and February will bring splendid returns in either the local markets of Havana, or the early spring markets of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States.

The short streams flowing from the mountain chains along the north coast are the Mariel, the Manimani, the Mulata, the San Marcos, the Guacamayo, the Caimito and Mantua, and the Rio Salado. Returning on the south coast we have the Cabeza, the Guama, Ovas, Hondo, Herradura, San Diego, Los Palacios, Bacuranabo, Sabanal and the Bayale.

The northern coast of Pinar del Rio is fortunate in having three of the finest harbors of Cuba, bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. First, the beautiful Bay of Mariel, located about 30 miles west of Havana, has a narrow, deep entrance with a lighthouse on the eastern point, and the Government Quarantine Station for foreign ships on the western side at the entrance. This Bay rapidly widens out into a large deep basin, three miles in length from north to south, with an average width of perhaps a mile, together with several prolongations towards the west, all furnishing excellent anchorage and securely protected against any possible weather.

The shores of Mariel are beautiful. Palm covered bluffs several hundred feet in height rise almost abruptly from the eastern side of the Bay. On top of this promontory or plateau is located a fine two-story building, erected in 1905 as a club house, but occupied at the present time by Cuba’s Naval Academy. The view from the crest over the surrounding country, with its tall mountains in the distance, its forest covered foothills and great valleys planted in sugar cane to the south and west, with the Gulf of Mexico lying off to the north, presents a picture of rare tropical beauty.

Between this promontory and the lighthouse a modern cement factory was built in 1917, turning out at the present time 1,000 barrels of Portland Cement per day, while near the head of the Bay, a narrow gauge railroad, bringing asphalt from back in the foothills, terminates alongside the shipping wharf.

The quaint little fishing village of Mariel is located on the shore at the southern end of the Bay. Its inhabitants, although leading rather an uneventful life, seem quite content to remain, although Havana is less than thirty miles distant over a splendid automobile drive; one of the most beautiful in Cuba. The Quarantine Station is splendidly equipped and always in readiness to take care of any ship’s crew or passengers that may be detained by orders of the authorities in Havana. Mariel, owing to its natural beauty and its proximity to Havana, is frequently visited by President Menocal in his yacht, and furnishes a delightful, cool resting place for anyone during the summer season.

Ten or twelve miles further west, we have the Bay of Cabanas, another perfectly land-locked harbor, whose deep entrance is divided by an island into two channels. These open out into a wide picturesque expanse of water, extending east and west for some ten miles or more, with an average width of two or three.

On the small island that almost obscures the mouth of the harbor from the sea, a little old Spanish fort, with its obsolete guns, up to the present unmolested, bears mute evidence to those times when visits of pirates, with the equally troublesome corsairs of France and England, were common, and provision for defense was absolutely necessary. The village of Cabanas, in order to secure better protection from the danger mentioned, is located two or three miles back from the eastern end of the harbor.

Great fields of sugar cane surround the Bay on all sides. These, of course, have been greatly extended since the European War and the increased demand for sugar. A beautiful automobile drive that branches from the main line or Pinar del Rio road, at Guanajay, passes along the crest of the ridge of hills back of the Bay of Cabanas, for over ten miles, giving at almost every turn a new view to this beautiful sheet of water. Once known to the outside world, this magnificent Bay of Cabanas would soon become a popular resort for private yachts that spend the winter season in tropical waters.

Fifteen miles further west, this same winding, hill-climbing, macadamized Government driveway, reaches another splendid harbor known as Bahia Honda, or Deep Bay. Like most of the bays of Cuba, the entrance to this, although comparatively narrow, is deep, and with two range lights maintained for the purposes of easy access day and night. This harbor extends back from the Gulf of Mexico some seven or eight miles, with an average width of three or four, furnishing good anchorage for ships of any draught.

Bahia Honda was selected by the United States Government in 1902, as a coaling station, a large body of land on the western shore being reserved for that purpose. Owing, however, to the completion of the Panama Canal later, and to the consequent advantages of having a naval station closer to the line of maritime travel, between Panama and the Atlantic Coast, Bahia Honda was surrendered to the Government of Cuba and Guantanamo became the principal United States Naval Station for the West Indies.

The harbor of Bahia Honda, dotted with islands, and with comparatively high lands extending all along its western and southern shores, offers the same advantages, not alone for an extensive commerce, but as a rendezvous for foreign yachts and pleasure craft, during the closed season or winter months of the north. The little village bearing the same name, two miles back from the Bay, is reached by a branch from the main driveway connecting Bahia Honda with Havana and intermediate cities.

The Bay of La Esperanza, one hundred miles west of Havana, is inclosed by the long chain of islands and coral reefs known as the “Colorados,” that lie some eight or ten miles off the mainland, and protect three-fourths of the shore of Pinar del Rio from the heavy waves of the Gulf of Mexico. The entrance to this and adjacent bays is through narrow breaks in the barrier reef. Its waters have an average depth of only two or three fathoms; nevertheless considerable amounts of copper ore are shipped from the mines some fifteen miles back in the mountains during all seasons of the year.

Along the western shore of the main body of this Province, we have the harbors of Dimas and Mantua. Like the Esperanza, they are comparatively shallow bays, entered through breaks in the Colorado Reefs, but still available for moderate draft vessels in all seasons of the year.

In the angle of the ankle, formed by the shoe-like extension of the Province of Pinar del Rio, we have a beautiful wide indentation of the coast known as Guardiana Bay. On the shores, some ten years ago, was located a Canadian colony, but, owing to its isolation, and lack of transportation of all kinds, it has since been practically abandoned. This settlement, like the Isle of Pines, had little to recommend it except its beautiful climate and its perfect immunity from the cares and troubles of the outside world.

Aside from wide, deep indentations from the sea, and shallow landing places at the mouths of rivers, the south coast of Pinar del Rio has nothing to offer in the shape of harbors. Nevertheless, owing to the presence of long lines of outlying keys, and to the fact that northerly winds produce only smooth water off these shores, there is considerable local traffic carried on between various places on the south coast and Batabano, whence connection with Havana is secured by rail. A large part of the charcoal used in the capital is cut from the low lying forests that cover almost the entire length of Pinar del Rio’s south coast.

Across the ankle-like connection between the mainland and the peninsula forming the western extremity of the Island a depression runs from Guardiana Bay on the west to the Bay of Cortez on the east. Numerous fresh water lagoons or inland lakes lie so close that a small amount of dredging would cut a canal from one shore to the other, and save thus over a hundred miles of travel for local coasting vessels. At the present time these lakes, with their rich growth of aquatic plants, furnish a retreat during the winter season for many varieties of wild ducks, which the game laws of Cuba are endeavoring to protect. Wild deer are also very plentiful throughout the greater part of the Province, especially in the mountainous districts and in the jungles of the south coast.

The capital, Pinar del Rio, is a modern and rather attractive little city of some 12,000 inhabitants, located on a gentle rise of ground in the western center of the Province. Immediately surrounding it is the celebrated tobacco district known as the Vuelta Abajo, or Lower Turn, so called, perhaps, owing to the fact that the coast line of this section recedes rapidly towards the south and west.

The choice lands of this locality cover a relatively small area, not over thirty miles from east to west and less than half that distance from north to south. And even within this circumscribed area, the best tobacco is grown only in little vegas, or oases, whose soil seems to contain mineral elements the character of which has never been discovered, but that nevertheless give to the plant a peculiarly delightful aroma and flavor, not known to the tobacco of any other part of the world. As a result, the price of these little vegas, so favored by Nature, is very high, often running into thousands of dollars per acre.

Pinar del Rio is connected with Havana by the Western Railway, that traverses almost the entire length of the Province, terminating at the present time at the town of Guane within thirty miles of Guardiana Bay. This railroad furnishes transportation for the great level plains, together with the fertile foot hills that occupy the southern half of the Province.

An extension of the line has been granted and contracts signed carrying it around the western terminus of the Organ Mountains, whence it will follow the line of the north shore, returning east to Havana. This line when completed will furnish transportation to the entire length of the coast lands bordering on the Gulf of Mexico.

Along the Western Road are a number of prosperous little cities or villages, with populations varying from two to eight thousand, including Artemisa, Candelaria, San Cristobal, Taco-Taco, Los Palacios, Herradura, Consolacion del Sur, Ovas, etc., all of which are located along the foothills, and in the tobacco district is known as the Partido or Semi Vuelta. Beyond Pinar del Rio, we have San Luis, Martinez and Guane, which claim to be within the charmed zone of Vuelta Abajo.

Tobacco is also grown around the little town of Vinales, nestling in the center of that valley, and in nearly all of the foothills that border the north coast; hence the tobacco industry in this end of the Island, greatly exceeds in value, that of sugar cane, which up to the beginning of the great war, was grown only in the basins of rich heavy soil surrounding the harbors of Mariel, Cabanas and Bahia Honda. There are seven ingenios or sugar mills within the limits of this province that produced together 645,000 bags of sugar in 1918.

The growing of fruits and vegetables, especially since the birth of the Republic, was introduced into Pinar del Rio as an industry by Americans, many of whom settled along the line of the Western Road, many of these, taking advantage of the rich sandy loams between the railroad line and the Organ Mountains, have built up a really important industry not before known to Cuba.

An American colony was started at Herradura, one hundred miles west of Havana in 1902. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the little settlement gave nearly all of their capital and energy to the planting of citrus fruit groves, which as a whole, have rather disappointed their owners. This was not because the growing of citrus fruit cannot be successfully carried on in Pinar del Rio, but was in most instances owing to the fact that the areas planted were very much larger than the available help could possibly handle and care for intelligently; hence many groves, lacking this care, have lapsed into grazing lands, whence they came.

The growing of vegetables, green peppers, tomatoes, egg plants and beans, especially where farms were located near enough to streams to provide irrigation during the months of January, February and March, has proven very profitable, and within the near future will undoubtedly be still further extended.

In the early part of the 19th century, and for that matter, up to the abolition of slavery in 1878, the production of coffee in the mountainous districts of Pinar del Rio was the chief industry in the Province. Beautiful estates, the ruins of which are frequently scattered along the line of the Organ Mountains, especially in that section of the range included between San Cristobal and Bahia Honda, and splendid country homes with approaches cut from the main highways of travel up into these delightful picturesque retreats, were occupied during the summer months by prominent citizens of Havana, who found the growing of coffee both profitable and agreeable. The coffee trees still grow, although uncared for, and many thousand of pounds are still brought out of this almost forgotten district, on mule back, to be sold to the country groceries of Bahia Honda and San Cristobal, where the green beans bring twenty dollars per hundred weight.

With the introduction of colonists from the Canary Islands, Italy, and other countries who love the fresh air of the mountains, and who do not object to the isolation which naturally follows a residence in remote sections, there is every reason to believe that the coffee industry will again be resumed. The settlement of these hills and vales with families whose children can assist in the picking of berries, will make the growing of coffee a great success.

Until 1913 the mining interests of Pinar del Rio were practically ignored, in spite of the fact that several excavations or shafts, that had been worked many years before, gave evidence of the existence of copper. It was in this year that Luciano Diaz, formerly Secretary of Public Works, became interested in the district known as Matahambre. Competent mining engineers, brought from the United States, assured Mr. Diaz that his claim was valuable, and merited the investment of capital. This proved to be true, since the mine has produced high-grade copper at the rate of about five million dollars per year since the date of its opening.

Valuable deposits of manganese, too, have been recently discovered in the western end of the province, and will undoubtedly be developed in the near future. Excellent iron ore is found in the same chain, west of the capital, but owing to the difficulties of transportation, the mines have never been operated. Asphalt, asbestos and other substances used in the commercial world, are found at various points along the range, and await only intelligent direction and capital for their development.

Although Narciso Lopez, with his unfortunate followers, endeavored to arouse the people of this Province against the iniquities of Spanish rule in the year 1852, the revolution had never reached the west until the winter of 1896, when General Antonio Maceo, with his army of Cuban veterans, carried the “invasion of the Occident” to its ultimate objective. After one of the most skilfully conducted campaigns known to history, he rested for a few weeks in the little town of Mantua, within a few miles of the extreme western shore of Cuba.

The crossing of the Trocha, that had been built between the harbor of Mariel and the south coast, by this invading army, was very distasteful to General Weyler, who soon filled Pinar del Rio with well armed regiments and gave Maceo battle for more than a year. Short of ammunition, and in a section of the country where it was almost impossible for the expedition to aid him, General Maceo was compelled to keep up a running fight for many months, and in the Organ Mountains and in their various spurs toward the north coast were fought some of the most stubbornly contested engagements of the War of Independence.

CHAPTER VI

PROVINCE OF MATANZAS

HISTORICALLY the province of Matanzas has played a comparatively unimportant part in the various events that have influenced the destiny of the Island. In the early days of conquest, little mention of the district was made. Grijalva, however, with a small body of men, was the first of the Spanish conquerors who, pushing his way along the northern coast of Cuba, reached the harbor now known as Matanzas on October 8, 1518. A very substantial fort of the same excellent style of military architecture as that seen in Havana, was erected on the western shore of the Bay of Matanzas to protect the city from invasion, in the middle of the eighteenth century.

The province of Matanzas joins Havana on the east and has an area of 3,257 square miles. The surface as a whole is comparatively level, although the chain of mountains, which forms the backbone of the entire Island, is represented along the center of Matanzas in a series of low peaks and foothills sloping away to the northwest corner, in which the capital, Matanzas, is located on a bay of the same name.

Across the eastern center of the Province of Matanzas, nature left a depression that extends from the north coast at Cardenas, almost if not quite, to the shore of the Caribbean, at the Bay of Cochinos. The elevation above the sea level is so slight throughout this belt that a series of fresh water lagoons, swamps and low lands, without natural drainage of any kind, has rendered the district almost useless for agriculture and grazing purposes during the rainy season. Between the months of May and November this section is frequently flooded so that animals occasionally perish and crops are frequently destroyed.

To relieve the situation a drainage canal was proposed a few years ago, that should furnish an artificial exit for the surplus water into the Bay of Cardenas. The length of the proposed canal was thirty miles, and work began on the big ditch in 1916. At the present time it is practically completed, at a cost of approximately five millions of dollars. Its width varies from sixteen to forty-four meters, carrying an average depth of one and a half meters, or five feet.

The possibility of eventually converting this drainage canal into an avenue of traffic, between the north and the south coasts, furnishing thus water, or cheap transportation, between Havana, Matanzas, Cardenas and Cienfuegos, or other ports on the south coast, has naturally appealed to engineers who have studied the terrain. There are no engineering difficulties that would prevent a canal of this kind from being converted into a deep ship canal across the Island which would shorten the distance between New York and Panama by at least two hundred miles. Steamers bound north from Panama would then cross the Caribbean, pass through from Cochinos Bay to Cardenas, entering at once the Gulf Stream, the force of whose current would still further shorten the time between Panama and Pacific ports on the south, and all Atlantic ports north of Cuba. The engineering problem could not be more simple, since it is merely a question of dredging through earth and soft limestone rock for a distance of seventy-five miles, taking advantage, as does the present drainage canal, of the Auton River, where it empties into Cardenas Bay. That such a saving of time and distance will some day be consummated is more than probable. Not only the economics and benefits to be derived from such a shortening of miles between local points in times of peace, but the strategic advantage of the short cut for naval units in time of war, are more than manifest to any one at all familiar with the geography of Cuba and the West Indies. Cuba, for commercial and economical reasons, is deeply interested in the construction of a canal that would make the Province of Matanzas an intersea gateway, not only for her own coastwise trade, but for much of the northbound traffic that in the near future will carry millions of tons of raw material from the west coast of South America to the great manufacturing centers of the North Atlantic.

Running parallel with the north shore, a short series of remarkable hills rise abruptly from the surrounding level plain to an altitude of a thousand feet or more. One of these is known as the “Pan de Matanzas,” whose round, palm covered top may be seen for many miles at sea. Ships coming from New York usually make this peak above the horizon before any other part of the Island comes into view.

The Yumuri River, at some time in the remote geological past cut its way through these hills and found exit in Matanzas Bay. The valley lying between two of these parallel ridges, through which the Yumuri flows, has been rendered famous by Alexander Humboldt, who visiting the spot in the winter of 1800, traveling over most of South and Central America, pronounced it the most beautiful valley in the world. No terms of praise are too great to bestow on the Yumuri; but in truth it must be said that Humboldt had never seen the Valley of Vinales, one hundred and thirty miles west, or he would probably have hesitated in bestowing such superlative praise on the Yumuri.

Only a few miles south of the Yumuri, another river known as the San Juan has broken through the ridge which lies along the western shore, and empties its waters into the bay. Another small stream, the Canima, pouring its waters into the Bay, a little further east, flows through a series of limestone cliffs covered with a wealth of tropical forest and furnishes a source of recreation to visitors and many people of the capital, who make excursions to the head of navigation in motor launches.

The Province has an average length of about 70 miles, with a width from north to south of fifty miles, and forms a fairly regular parallelogram. From the center of the coast line a narrow neck of land, known as the Punta Hicaco, projects out toward the northeast for some fifteen miles, inclosing the Bay of Cardenas on the west. The outer shore of this strip of land, known as El Veradero, forms the finest bathing beach in all Cuba, to which those who do not find it convenient to visit the United States in summer, can come during the warmer months.

A chain of islands varying in size from little keys of a half acre to that of Cayo Romano, seventy miles long, extends from a few miles east of Punta Hicaco, along the north shore of Cuba to the Harbor of Nuevitas, a distance of three hundred miles. The Bay of Cardenas, although large in extent is rather shallow in comparison with most harbors of Cuba. Extensive dredging, however, has rendered it available for steamers of 20-foot draft.

The southern boundary of the Province is formed by the River Gonzalo, fairly deep throughout half its length, but obstructed by shoals at the mouth. The upper extension of this stream, known as Hanabana, flows along the larger part of its eastern boundary. Just south of the Gonzalo River lies the great Cienaga de Zapato, or Swamp of the Shoe, which belongs to the Province of Santa Clara. The land along the northern bank of the river is also low and marshy, with sharp limestone rocks frequently cropping out on the surface. Of navigable rivers, Matanzas has really none worthy of mention but with railroads it is quite well supplied.

The surface as a whole is slightly rolling and has long been under cultivation, especially in the production of sugar cane, for which nearly all of this section is excellently adapted. There are forty sugar plantations in active operation in Matanzas Province, producing in 1917 over four million sacks. The cultivation of sugar cane, as in other provinces, is the chief source of wealth and yields the greatest revenue.

In recent years, or since revolutions have practically destroyed the industries of Yucatan, capital has been attracted to the cultivation of henequen, and to the extraction of the fibre known as sisal, from which not only rope and cables are made, but also binding twine, so essential to the wheat crop of the United States.

Leaving the city of Cardenas, which promises soon to be another great sisal center, and traveling west over the automobile drive towards Matanzas, a perfect panorama of growing henequen is spread out on both sides of the road as far as the eye can reach. The peculiar bluish green color of the fields of this valuable textile plant, dotted as they are with royal palms, produce a fascinating effect as one passes through league after league of henequen.

There are many limestone hills, plateaus and plains in Matanzas Province, whose surface, covered with a thin layer of rich red soil, is especially adapted to the growth and cultivation of henequen, and it is quite possible that the sisal industry, in a short time, may equal if not excel in importance the sugar industry of the province.

Some twenty years ago a complete plant was established in the city of Matanzas for the manufacture of cables, cordage and binding twine for the local market. Thousands of acres of barren hillsides south of the city were planted in henequen at that time, and have since furnished enough raw material to keep this rope factory going throughout the entire year. The decortator, or machine by which the sisal is separated from the pulp of the leaves, is located near the crest of the hill, about a half a mile back of the factory. From this point down to the plain below, the green fresh sisal is conveyed by gravity in iron baskets, where it is received by women and spread out on wire lines to dry. Twenty-four hours later it is carried into the factory and there spun into rope of all sizes, from binding twine to the twelve-inch hawsers. Water was found alongside the factory only a few feet below the surface, where an underground stream furnishes an inexhaustible supply.

Several millions were invested in the Matanzas henequen industry, started by a company of Germans, who recently sold out to local and foreign capitalists. It is said that the capacity of the plant will be greatly increased.

The city of Matanzas, capital of the Province, is spread out over the side and along the base of the low hill that forms the western shore of the Bay. Although not possessing the wealth of Havana, the general appearance of the city, with its substantial stone buildings, gives every evidence of prosperity and comfort. Its population numbers approximately 40,000, the greater part of whom are interested in sugar, henequen and other local industries of the section.

Matanzas was first settled in 1693, but the modern city is laid out with wide streets, the oldest of which as usual radiate from the central plaza or city park, a quaint square ornamented with oriental palms and tropical flowers. The most pretentious drive of this provincial capital, however, has been built along the shore of the bay, a beautiful wide avenue lined with laurels and with statues of various local heroes, which add greatly to its interest. The view from the opposite side of the bay is excelled only by that of Havana from the heights of Cabanas.

Just back of the City, or rather on the edge of its northwestern boundary, perched on the front of a commanding promontory known as La Loma de Monserrate, is located a quaint little cathedral dedicated to the Virgin of El Cobre. The altar and background of the nave are constructed of cork, brought from Spain for that purpose many years ago. From the crest of this flat topped hill, protected on the north by a stone wall, with spacious seats of the same material, under the shade of laurel trees, the traveller has spread before him a beautiful view of the Yumuri Valley, over which Humboldt gazed with admiration some hundred years ago.