110 CUBA AND POETO KICO 



neat canopies, and a few steamer-slips, behind which is a 

 handsome street parallel with the water-front, on which face 

 many beautiful buildings and shady parks. 



The city proper is on a low plain standing only a few 

 feet above the sea, and was once inclosed by a medieval 

 wall. It occupies a septagonal peninsula lying between the 

 river Armendaris on the west, the sea on the north, and 

 Havana harbor on the east. On the south and west it is 

 backed by an amphitheater of pretty hills rising to the 

 altitude of the Morro highland across the bay. On the 

 westernmost of these are erected the conspicuous fortifica- 

 tions of Castillo del Principe, while others are overrun by 

 suburban houses which have crept out in those directions. 



One of the small feluccas speedily conveys the traveler 

 to the Machina wharf, where polite officials attend to the 

 formalities of landing. Neat victorias expeditiously con- 

 duct you, for the small sum of twenty cents, up the narrow, 

 cobblestoned, medieval business streets to the hotels in the 

 center of the city, the chief of which is La Gran Hotel In- 

 glaterra. This hostelry is situated on the beautiful Plaza 

 de Isabella, with trees, shrubs, and flowers, and surrounded 

 by handsome, massive, two-story buildings with gigantic 

 colonnades suggestive, as a whole, of the wonderful white 

 city which we built on Lake Michigan to commemorate the 

 early history in which the discoverers of Cuba played so 

 large a part. 



The building-material of Havana is a peculiar loose- 

 textured conglomerate of sea- shell, of a glaring white color,, 

 called cantera, somewhat more compact than the coquina 

 of St. Augustine. This is hewn out with axes or sawed into 

 great blocks, and laid in massive courses, the surface of 

 which is afterward plastered or stuccoed. This, in turn, is 

 variously colored by calcimining. Sometimes the surfaces 

 are roughly stippled to imitate rubble-stone work. The 

 prevalent colors used are yellow, white, and drab, relieved 

 by darkish blue, deep Egyptian red, and a vivid yellow 

 ocher. As in Spain and Mexico, the artisans make bold 



