14 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



mouth can be found a large ferr}- which carries the traveler and his horse to the other shore. 

 There being no carriage roads between Baracoa and IMaisi, there is of course no necessity for 

 a bridge or for a fern,- large enough to transport vehicles. 



To all who have traveled in the West Indies, the mouth of the Yumuri River must forever 

 linger in their memory as perhaps the most picturesque spot visited. With towering banks on 

 either side, the Yumuri wends its peaceful course toward the sea, protected as it were bj' the 

 deep canon it has cut for itself during untold centuries. The ver^' walls of this canon are covered 

 with verdure, with here and there a snow-white spot of limestone to show the underl>-ing 

 foimdation and to relieve the green monotony. It is possible to follow the Yumuri for a con- 

 derable distance from its mouth bj' canoe, as its depth increases once the sand banks, at the 

 entrance of the river, are passed. 



The ferry once crossed, the path ascends the table-land in a dizzy zigzag which at times 

 puts a great fear into the traveler's heart, especially so if his horse should happen to be 

 stumble-footed. The table-land is fully 300 feet above the level of the sea and stretches from 

 the banks of the Yumuri east to the shores of Cape Maisi. It is bounded north and south 

 by the sea, and while the writer wishes to impose no fanciful geological theory upon his readers 

 the plateau has to him everj' appearance of having been caused by a series of successive sub- 

 marine upheavals. This theorj^ is all the more feasible when one e.xamines the shores of Cape 

 iMaisi, where three distinct graduated steps bear evidence, by the sea-worn caves that can be 

 seen in each successive step of the various water levels. Furthermore, the entire table-land 

 is of a coraline limestone formation, and it is more likely to suppose that this land was elevated 

 b}- an upheaval than that it was at one time submerged when the level of the sea had a greater 

 height. 



Nuevitas Bay. 



The summit of the table-land once reached, one is close to the small village of Sabana 

 Grande, sometimes known as Sabana Vieja. This village consists of about 12 houses, a Jonda 

 y posada (a hotel of the smaller sort), and a jail, and makes no pretense to being a metropolis. 

 It is a useful place to the traveler, however, as it is here that he can hire fresh horses for the con- 

 tinuance of his journey and has the opportunity to obtain a meal or to spend the night. Per- 

 haps the first thing that will strike the newcomer are the cool nights on this plateau. When 

 Baracoa and the rest of the Cub.in Republic are smothering under the heat of a tropical sun, 



