No. 1.] MATTHEW — IMrRESSIONS OF CUBA. 2T 



which descends westward to the great Zapato Swamp. Siicb 

 gravelly soils are usually accompanied by loamy lands, which are- 

 often occupied as farms for the production of fruit and vegeta- 

 bles, and, when exhausted, as pasture grounds for the herds or 

 cattle used in working the estates. Other tracts of this nature 

 are reserved as wood-lands to supply fuel to the sugar-mills. 



On all these higher swells and ridges, where gravel or sandy 

 loam does not form the soil, — as well as on the slopes extending 

 down toward the river, but above the land covered by tierni. 

 ncgra — another kind of soildenomiuated ^t>>-ra co^omcZa prevails.. 

 This deposit overlies the yellow clays, but I do not know whether 

 it also passes beneath the tlcrra ncgra, or terminates at its 

 borders. It is considered a valuable soil for the production of 

 sugar : the canes grown upon it need to be renewed every three 

 years, but the quality of cane-juice obtained from plants grown 

 on this kind of land is regarded as much superior to that yielded 

 by canes grown on the dark lands of the lower levels. Tierra 

 colorada varies from cinnamon color to a chocolate-red, and its- 

 peculiar tint appears to be developed by the disintegration of 

 older surface deposits and limestones. The red color is brightest 

 in those thin coatings of soil which only half conceal the white 

 limestone ledges on the ridge west of the Damuji, and results 

 from an abundant admixture of red oxide of iron. In following: 

 these soils westerly beyond the ridge, and in the direction of the 

 Zapato Swamp, the iron oxide predominates more and more, till 

 at length the thin covering of earth is chiefly made up of little 

 ferruginous nodules of the size of swan-shot. In this direction 

 the soil looses its fertility, and the woods which cover the tierra 

 colorada on the Damuji give way to wide wastes of dry laud 

 covered with thin grass, and dotted here and there by clumps of 

 low thorny bushes. The barrenness here seems in part due to 

 the want of a subsoil, and the ease with which the surface waters 

 escape into crevices in the limestone rocks below, leaving the soil 

 to be parched by a hot tropical sun. 



The clay beds and gravel ridges, which are spread over the 

 surface of the Miocene marls and sandstones between Cienfuegos 

 and Caunau, yield pale buff colored soils, which are cultivated on 

 the farms and small sugar plantations of that neighborhood ; but 

 the tillage lands here do not appear to be so productive as those 

 of the Damuji. The clay beds of Cienfuegos are worked for 

 making tiles and brick of which there is a large consumption in. 



