CHAPTER X 



COMMEKCE AND TRANSPORTATION 



Harbors, railways, highways. Sources of wealth. The large commerce 

 of the island. Commercial value of the island to Spain. Trade with 

 the United States. 



PERHAPS no country in the world is so blessed with 

 harbors as Cuba. Not only are they numerous, but 

 many of them are excellent, and afford convenient outlets 

 for the products of the island and easy access for oceanic 

 and coastal transportation. They are so conveniently 

 situated as regards different portions of the island that the 

 trade of Cuba may be said literally to pass out at a hun- 

 dred gates. Most of the harbors are pouch-shaped inlets 

 indenting the rocky coast, with narrow outlets pointed by 

 elevated reef rock. The cause of this peculiar configura- 

 tion is undoubtedly the superior resistance of the reef rock 

 which forms the coastal points, and the correspondingly 

 softer nature of the rocks behind it, out of which the bays 

 are cut. Others are variations of this simple form, in which 

 the cul-de-sac is modified by many smaller indentations. 



The chief of these harbors on the north coast, beginning 

 at the west, are Bahia Honda, Cabanas, Havana, Matanzas, 

 Sagua, Nuevitas, Gibara, Mpe, and Baracoa ; and Guanta- 

 namo, Santiago de Cuba, Manzanillo, Trinidad, and Cien- 

 fuegos, on the south. The last mentioned is said to be one 



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