THECUBAREVIEW 19 



The President of the Republic took an immediate interest in the report and sent the writer 

 to Motembo with unUmited faciUties to investigate the truth of the matter. Accompanied by 

 an agricultural chemist of splendid reputation, Mr. P. V. Goldsmith, who had charge of the 

 Agricultural Department of the Cuban-American Sugar Company, and had his headquarters 

 at Tinguaro, a sugar-estate in the Province of Matanzas, fifteen days were spent on the ground, 

 prospecting, investigating, taking samples, etc., until after careful analysis and study the con- 

 clusion was reached that the American who had started the report was a vulgar faker who had 

 got hold of some commercial potash and was dosing rocks with it besides employing the potash 

 obtained by repeated leachings of the ashes of j)almetto trees. Naturally our report was a great 

 disappointment to the "discoverer" and "inventor" of the process of producing commercial 

 potash from common dolomitic limestone, an old well-driller who had been stranded and lived 

 like a hermit in the place, since the days w'hen well drilling was actively carried on in the 

 vicinity. 



At a place about one and a half kilometres west of Placetas del Sur a good seam of soft 

 coal has been located and is being mined and sold to improve low grade coals. This seam occurs 

 in a claim which was very actively worked a few years ago for this bituminous product which 

 was entirely used at Santa Clara for the production of gas for the city. The mining of this coal 

 w-as discontinued as railroad facilities improved, and foreign coals could be imported cheaper 

 than this product could be mined. 



The extreme eastern portion of the province is rich in copper indications, and particularly 

 at Escambray gold was mined for years with good returns. The writer recollects that while 

 attending the School of Mines of Harvard University, Professor Shaler, after an extended 

 mining trip through the Island, stated that two things had particularly struck him in the 

 course of his trip; first, the possible importance of the amount of gold and copper that could be 

 recovered by modern milling methods from the dumps of the old mines that he had visited and 

 examined, and second, the fact that a decent man could travel the Island from one end to the 

 other without spending a dollar or speaking the language, through the hospitality and good 

 nature of the Cuban country people, or "guajiros" as we call them. 



Thesouthernhalf of Santa Clara Province is, however, the most interesting from a geolog- 

 ical and mining point of view. 



At Cumanayagua, some 35 kilometres northeast of the city of Cienfuegos, there is an 

 extended zone just north of the coastal mountain range so rich in copper indications, carbon- 

 ates and sulphides of copper, that one wonders at the rather negative results of the more or less 

 extended explorations being carried on in the region. 



In the mountains, the Carlo ta Mine is the centre of great activity. A railroad is being 

 completed from the foot hills to the main line to Cienfuegos. An aerial tramway is being erected 

 from the mine to the railroad terminal below, and active mining operations are in progress 

 blocking off the immense deposits of iron pyrites for intensive exploitation on the completion 

 of the railroad and terminal facilities. The Davidson Sulphur and Phosphate Company is 

 investing over $5,000,000 in this one mine, which is said to be capable of supplying the United 

 States with iron pyrites needed for the production of all the sulphuric acid it may need. 



Further east, and on the coastal plane proper, extensive manganese outcrops of varying 

 richness and purity are prominent. At Trinidad, specially, an important body of manganese 

 ore is at present being actively mined by a Havana concern. 



PROVINCE OF CAMAGiJEY 



The Province of lowest relief of Cuba, noted for its rich soil and pasture land, is also 

 mineralogically considered, the second in importance from the point of view of the extension of 

 its iron deposits, second only to those of the Province of Oriente. 



Copper, however, is the oldest known mineral mined in this region, and the tow^n of 

 Minas on the CamagUey-Nuevitas Railroad, over one century old, owes its name to the copper 

 mines surrounding it, one of which was for sometime considered the richest mine in the world, 

 on account of the grade of copper ore produced back in 1846. 



From Moron, or better still, from the western boundary of the Province to Minas, in a 

 zone 150 kilometres long and 20 wide, there is hardly a ravine, a river bank, or a hill that does 

 not show splendid copper carbonates in varying amounts. This belt has been explored for 



