THE CUBA REVIEW 



13 



Hills Around Baracoa. 



soaps and has a ready makert in the United States. In addition to this, the coconut meal, 

 i. €., the residue after the oil has been expressed from the kernels of the nuts, is a valuable by- 

 product and is used in Baracoa for the fattening of hogs. 



Another export of Baracoa consists of wax gathered from the wild bees that have built 

 hives in the uncleared parts of the country. The.se hives are located by professional wax 

 hunters, who scale seemingly impossible rocks to secure their prize. Not infrequently the bees 

 build their storehouses in the entrances of the limestone caves with which the countryside 

 abounds, and in consequence visiting archeologists to this region may do well to remember 

 that wax hunters will often be able to tell of caves which are unknown to the other in- 

 habitants. In many of these caves one is likely to find aboriginal remains and artifacts of 

 great archeological value. 



The first village of importance to the eastward of Baracoa is ]Mata. This is a calling station 

 for the banana steamers coming to Baracoa, and from here large quantities of this fruit, gath- 

 ered from the surrounding country, are exported. Mata itself is but a small village of per- 

 haps 30 houses; its harbor is too shallow to allow steamers to anchor and in consequence the 

 bananas are carried off in lighters to the collecting steamer which lies some distance offshore. 

 From Mata to the mouth of the Yumuri River the road follows the beach more or less, whereas 

 the road from Baracoa to Mata allows no view of the sea. While in places progress is somewhat 

 impeded by the heavy sand, the road from Mata to the Yumuri ferry makes up in beauty what 

 it lacks in convenience. 



The Yumuri River— and it should be noted that Cuba boasts of two Yumuri rivers, the 

 other one being found near Matanzas in the center of the island— has a width of about 200 

 yards at the mouth with, in all seasons excepting the rainy season, a depth of not over 3 feet. 

 This lack of depth is due to sand banks which form in the mouth of the river, thanks to the 

 heavy swell which deposits large quantities of coraline sand. Pome short distance from the 



