The Republic of Cuba 44 



SANTA CLARA 

 Population, 48,000 Inhabitants 

 The city of Santa Clara is the second inland 

 town of Cuba in point of size and importance. 

 The air and soil here are remarkably dry, and the 

 atmosphere the clearest of the Island, which may 

 account for the exceptional beauty for which its 

 women are famous. It has always been a city 

 of much wealth, and the visitor will discover in 

 it some features entirely unique. Very interest- 

 ing side trips to Sagua, Caibarien, Remodios, 

 Cienfuegos and other points on the Cuban 

 Central Railway may be made from Santa Clara. 



MATANZAS 



Population, 75,000 Inhabitants 

 Of all the many excursions from Havana the 

 most popular and interesting is that to the 

 beautiful city of Matanzas, sixty miles eastward 

 from the Capital, and possessing all the quaint 

 and foreign aspects that are so characteristic of 

 Cuban cities and the same time is unusually 

 rich in picturesque surroundings. 



The beautiful valley of the Yumuri, which 

 elicited such unstinted praise from the great 

 Humboldt; the wonderful and dense tropical 

 vegetation on the upper reaches of the Canimar 

 River and its tributary, the Moreto; the won- 

 derful Caves of Bellamar, the subterranean 

 wonderland, several miles in extent, lined with 

 beautiful crystal formations of stalactites and 

 stalagmites, in which electric lights strike a 

 thousand sparks, and gleam in pools of profound 

 depths. Its explored length is three miles; there 

 are bridges and paths, and the place is well kept 

 and shown. 



