FORESTRY QUARTERLY. 



VOL. IV] DECEMBER, 1906 [No. 4 



UBRARY 



THE HIGH SIERRA MAESTRA. NEW YORK 



I. A SURVEY IN THE TROPICS. 



BOTANICAL 



The Sierra Maestra is the highest, as well as the wildest mountain 

 range in Cuba, a part of the "master range" of the Antilles, paral- 

 leling the Southeastern shore. East and West of Santiago. The 

 part to the East as far as Cape Maisi (also called Sierra del Cobre) 

 and for some forty miles to the West of Santiago, is known as the 

 low Maestra, attaining a general altitude of 1800 feet. Beyond, a 

 sudden rise in the crest of some 2000 feet announces the "high" 

 Maestra, an unexplored country of most rugged structure, and vir- 

 gin as to forest conditions with the exception of the immediate sea- 

 front. 



It was this, jDractically unknown forest country, which the writer 

 had an opportunity to explore in part, with a view to commercial 

 development. Since details of tropical forest conditions in our hem- 

 isphere, and especially of Cuba, have so far been rarely or never 

 discussed in literature, a description of the results of the forest sur- 

 vey of a tropical mountain range may prove of interest. 



To talk about unexplored country in Cuba sounds strange, yet it is 

 true that not even a botanist had collected over this high mountain 

 range before Mr. Norman Taylor from the N. Y. Botanical Gar- 

 dens, who had accompanied the writer, first trod the main ridge at 

 the headwaters of the Sevilla River. There had been white men at 

 the shores, and, indeed, a large and luxurious mining development 

 had been conducted for two years on the Guama River and had en- 

 gulfed a large capital of good American money in absolute loss, but 

 neither geographer, geologist, nor naturalist has visited and de- 

 scribed this region except from outward appearances along the shore. 

 ^According to our native guides none but the native hunters had 

 CD traveled the maze of ridges and canyons as we did. 

 I Topography and Climate. 



CO Geologically, erroneous notions regarding the high Maestra pre- 



