18 Mr. R. C. Taylor's Notes relative to the Geology of Cuba, 



The area of which I propose now to give a sketch is si- 

 tuated between the city of Holguin and the sea, and forms a 

 mountainous belt or zone parallel with the northern coast of 

 Cuba. That part of it, at least that part which is within the 

 limits of this investigation, in which copper lodes of value have 

 been proved, appears to be only two or three miles in breadth. 

 The centre of this mineral range is about eight miles, in a 

 straight line from the Embarcadero or landing-place of the 

 Gibara river; from hence that stream is navigable for lighters 

 four or five miles to the bay and port of Gibara. The known 

 copper lodes are almost entirely limited to the Savanas, which 

 it may probably be not uninteresting first to describe. 



Natural Features of the Savanas. — This term, in the island 

 of Cuba, implies an elevated hilly range, for the most part 

 clear of wood, excepting the Corojo palms, the Palmettos 

 of two or three species, and some occasional patches of low 

 thorny bushes, aloes, and beautifully flowering shrubs, peculiar 

 to these sites. The surface is everywhere thickly strewed with 

 detritus of the prevailing serpentine rocks of the district, and 

 is covered with a coarse description of grass, rejected by cattle, 

 and which is commonly fired in every spring, either for the 

 improvement of the scanty pasturage, or from time to time, to 

 facilitate the search after copper veins. 



Innumerable small streams and ravines, whose beds are dry 

 during the greater part of the year, wind amidst the Savanas 

 in the most intricate manner ; descending to larger streams on 

 their way to the main outlet at the bay of Gibara, or to that 

 of Barriay and others which indent the north-eastern coast of 

 Cuba. Their courses in the elevated country are distinguish- 

 able by the superior luxuriance of the vegetation along their 

 banks. These streams, with their borders of rich and wood- 

 land soil, form the boundaries of the numerous distinct Sa- 

 vanas, each of which bears its separate name. 



Smaller detached areas of open and unimproved land, re- 

 sembling the Savanas, appear on the hills which rise from the 

 midst of the surrounding woods. They are known by the 

 denomination of Saos, and are kept open by occasionally firing 

 the coarse herbage. The rocks which appear on their sur- 

 faces are of the same character as thosj on the Savanas, and 

 sometimes indicate mineral traces. 



Still smaller open and elevated areas are called Saoitos, and 

 partake of the common character, having a few straggling 

 palmettos and mahogany trees dispersed over their rocky sur- 

 faces. 



The Savana region, whose extreme limits are imperfectly 

 defined, and of which but a comparatively small portion has 



