NORTH COAST OF CUBA

Matanzas. Two routes offer to Matanzas, port and city on the north coast, 54 miles from Havana; by sea and by land. The United Railways provides a personally conducted excursion from Havana, at a cost of $11, Matanzas and return; children under twelve, $7.50; which includes the Yumuri Valley, Caves of Bellamar, and lunch at Hotel Paris. The land journey, Havana to Matanzas, is more than interesting-it is fascinating; but there are no towns or cities en route at which comforts for the traveller are provided. The journey, all the way, is through a fertile “sugar country," with palm-dotted fields of vast expanse; near and distant views of great ingenios with smoking chimneys; toiling teams of oxen drawing loads of sugar-cane, and miles of private railway tracks running in every direction. The sea voyage may be made by steamers of the Spanish Herrera Line, which touch at nearly all ports as far south and east as Santiago.

Approaching Matanzas by sea, a famous landmark is first seen, the Pan de Matanzas, a sugar-loaf mountain 1,300 feet in height; then the lighthouse, forts, the castles of Morillo and San Severino. Though surrounded by hills, Matanzas is low-lying, scarcely rising above 100 feet, and is divided into three parts, each division having a distinctive name. The central portion, between the Yumuri and San Juan rivers, is known as the Old Town; on the north bank of the Yumuri is Versailles, and south of the San Juan lies the New Town, Pueblo Nuevo. The central park of Matanzas is its Plaza de Libertad, with a fountain, flowers, and the ever-present palms. The Governor's Palace bounds the south side of the Plaza; the Casino Español, or Spanish Club, the Cuban Club, and the Grand Hotel Louvre, the other sides.

Fine scenery and beautiful drives are afforded by crossing the Concordia Bridge over the Yumuri, passing through the villa-lined streets of Versailles, with marble-columned and porticoed houses, profusely ornamented with grilled win

dows and balconies, to the Paseo Marti. This paseo is a parked boulevard, with a statue of Ferdinand II. at the east end, and a monument to sixty-three Cuban patriots, executed here by the Spaniards, at the west end. It overlooks harbour and bay, and is continued by a good military road to Fort San Severino, where the "immortal mule" was slaughtered at Sampson's bombardment of Matanzas, in 1898. At the bridge mentioned is a massive old church, with walls 20 feet thick, and twin towers, which is worthy of inspection. In Pueblo Nuevo, to reach which the San Juan is crossed over Belen Bridge, we shall find splendid residences of the native magnates, exquisitely tinted in various colours, and with effective porticoes supported by marble pillars.

Yumuri Valley. That Vale of Paradise, the Yumuri Valley, is best seen from the crest of the Cumbre, a verdant hill which rises immediately above Matanzas, crowned by the chapel of Montserrate. To reach the Cumbre, one should charter a volante, a Cuban vehicle with wheels 6 or 7 feet in diameter, between which the body (resembling the old "one-hoss shay") is hung low, with shafts of great length, containing a single horse as motive power. Another horse, hitched outside the shafts, is ridden by the cochero, who guides the vehicle over the deep ruts and boulders which adorn the roads around Matanzas. Without such a conveyance as the volante, the great feature of which is elasticity and strength, it would be impossible to traverse these terrible highways.

Such a glorious view as is outspread beneath one from the Cumbre, it is impossible to describe, for it is one of the most beautiful scenes the world affords. The Yumuri is a deep and verdant basin enclosed within steep hills, its levels and slopes set with royal palms, singly and in clumps. "On the way thither one sees this stately and graceful tree, in ranks and single groups; but to know what beauty there really is in this child of the tropics, one should gaze upon the glorious creations of Yumuri. White and ivory-stemmed, they stand before you in the foreground of a vista transcendently lovely; they linger in memory like the spirits of departed saints." A silvery stream meanders through the valley, which breaks through a gorge to the city; and another trip should be taken

along its banks, above which are cliffs, with caves in their faces once occupied by Cuban refugees.

Montserrate Hermitage. The Hermitage of Montserrate, at the Cumbre, is of modern erection (1870), yet is held as a sacred shrine, many miracles having been attributed to Our Lady of Montserrate, as manifested by the numerous votive offerings. These include numerous crutches, shellwork, diamond ear-drops, painting of a railroad wreck, etc. The Caves of Bellamar. In a hill southeast of the city are the wonderful Caves of Bellamar, which were discovered in 1861, by a Chinaman who lost his crowbar through an aperture he was opening in the earth. The name is derived from that of a villa settlement near, which overlooks the harbour. The best vehicle for a trip to Bellamar, in fact the only one capable of carrying one comfortably over a portion of the journey, is the volante, which can be hired in Matanzas.

These caves have been explored for about 3 miles, and descend to a great depth. The aperture through which one enters is narrow, and a long flight of steps is first encountered, after which succeed chambers, passages, halls, etc., the largest of which is known as the Gothic Temple, about 200 feet long by 70 wide, and which, says one writer, "while it far surpasses in richness and splendour the temple of that name in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, does not equal it in size or solemn grandeur." Still, the caverns are large and deep enough to fatigue the ordinary visitor in the exploring. The domed ceilings are splendid and sparkling. except where the torches of former times have "smooched" them. Now the electric light "strikes a thousand sparks and flames in a thousand tints." The down-growing stalactites and up-growing stalagmites have coalesced, in many places, into gigantic columns, as in the "Temple," where they are immense.

The bridges and paths are kept in good repair. The guides are attentive, and seek to show all the cave contains. Charge for admission, $1, which includes services of guide. Leading Hotels, Matanzas

Grand Hotel Louvre, American plan, $2.50 up; European, $1 up.

Hotel Paris, $2.00 up, American plan; European, $1 up.

Cardenas is a modern and flourishing city 30 miles directly east from Matanzas, celebrated for its two underground rivers, which supply it with water, and for submarine deposits of asphalt in the harbour. It lies on a broad but shallow bay, and is an important station of the United Railways. It has a fine cathedral, broad streets, and a central square, the Plaza del Recreo, which contains a statue of Columbus, presented to the city by Queen Isabella II.

The harbour of Cardenas can hardly be called one, for large ships have to anchor 15 miles from town. Here occurred the brief though brilliant action of May 11, 1898, when the first American victims of the late war, Ensign Bagley and four sailors, were killed.

Not far from Cardenas is a shore resort called El Varadero, with miles of open sea-beach where the bathing is superb. "A place of pretty châlets and hotels, with all the beauty of the Florida seaside resorts, but without their tame

Sagua la Grande, on a river of this name, navigable for a distance of 20 miles, is an important place commercially, but has little of interest to the traveller except he be inclined to fishing and shooting. Its port at the mouth of the river, Isabel la Sagua, like a portion of Batabano, is built on piles above the water, and after the manner of the lake-dwellers' huts of Venezuela.

Nuevitas is the next harbour of importance, going east; though hidden behind some of the cays, which are so numerous off the north coast, is Caibarien, seaport of sugar-producing Remedios, a centre of large plantations. Nuevitas is reached through a sea-river about 6 miles long, and the harbour is so shallow that ships of size must anchor more than two miles from the wharves where the lighters land. The town is uninteresting, hot, dirty, and without hotels suitable for American or English travellers. Fishing in its harbour is good, tarpon being caught here. Sponges are obtained on the reefs, and sugar in vast quantity comes down from the interior for shipment. It is the shipping-port of Camaguëy, or Puerto Principe, with which it is connected by rail.

Pouch-shaped Harbours. Between Cardenas and Nuevitas, the north coast of Cuba is defended by hundreds of cayos and barrier-reefs, formerly the haunts of pirates, now the chosen resorts of fishermen and spongers. Behind these are landlocked harbours, most of them shallow, but secure against the hurricane, and with long stretches of sound, a perfect sailing-ground for yachtsmen. The port of San Fernando, behind the island of Turugiuana, is the northern outlet for the railroad that crosses the island from Jucaro. Situated about 50 miles westerly from Nuevitas, on Guanaja Bay, is the large and highly successful American colony of La Gloria, comprising 1,000 population, mostly Englishspeaking colonists.

La Gloria is a pioneer among colonies in this island, having been laid out in 1899, and its situation, in the vast and fertile Cubitas Valley, with a frostless climate, permits the raising of all tropical fruits with great success. A small steamer connects with Nuevitas; fare $1.50.

Beyond Nuevitas, easterly, there are scores of most interesting harbours, with narrow entrances between coral cays, pouch-shaped and deep-watered, like Manati, with a grand hill inland, and Puerto Padre, which latter is of importance as the shipping-port of the Chaparra sugar-mill, one of the largest in the world. Otherwise the port is uninteresting; but the same cannot be said of the next one, which is the port of Gibara, a calling-place of the American Munson Line. Gibara is thought to be the first port entered by Columbus, on his first arrival at the Cuban coast, in 1492. This is assumed from the allusion in his Journal to three striking elevations inland, known from their configuration as the Silla, or Saddle; the Pan, or Sugar-loaf; and the Tabla, or Table. Unlike most of the hills around Gibara, these are densely wooded on their lower slopes, but with summits steep and scarped, and at sunset shining like the granite crown of Mount Chocorua in New Hampshire.

Gibara town occupies a steep slope along the bay, crescentshaped, surrounded by a high wall of masonry with watchtowers, built as a protection against the insurgents. It was ultra-Spanish, and its charming villas, tinted in rainbow colours, were occupied by foreigners, most of whom have