THE CUBA REVIEW 13 



Havana, not only for domestic purposes, but in sufficient quantities to supply the ships 

 that dropped into port on their long voyages between Spain and the eastern coast of 

 ^Mexico. 



On November 7, 1887, the famous Spanish engineer D. Francisco Albear y Lara 

 completed the present aqueduct and system of waterworks by which the Springs of Vento 

 are made to contribute to the present Havana, with its 360,000 inhabitants, a supply of 

 excellent drinking water, although only a small portion of the flow from the above 

 mentioned Springs is utilized. 



Owing to the peculiar coral and soft limestone formation on which the soil of this 

 province is formed, numerous lagoons and rivers flow beneath the surface at various 

 depths, ranging from 30 to 300 feet. These, when found and tapped, furnish an abun- 

 dance of fresh water, seldom contaminated with objectionable mineral matter. At the 

 Experimental Station at Santiago de Las Vegas a magnificent spring of water was dis- 

 covered at a little over one hundred feet in depth. 



Other springs have formed a shallow lagoon just south of the city of Caimito, the 

 exit from which is furnished by a small swift-running stream that after a surface flow of 

 five or six miles suddenly plunges down into the earth some forty feet or more, 

 disappearing entirely from view and never reappearing, as far as is known, although, like 

 many other streams of this nature, it may come to the surface in the salt waters of the 

 Caribbean off the south coast. 



The disappearance of this river takes place within a hundred yards of the railroad 

 station, in the town of San Antonio de los Bafios, and furnishes rather an interesting 

 sight for the tourist who is not familiar with this peculiar phenomenon. 



Although the City of Havana is considered one of the most delightful winter resorts 

 in the Western Hemisphere, there are many who claim, and with reason perhaps, that 

 the Capitol has many advantages also as a place in which to spend the summer. Many 

 visitors from the Gulf States in summer have been loath to leave Cuba. 



The mean annual temperature of Havana varies only twelve degrees throughout 

 the year. During the winter the mercury plays between the two extremes of 58 and 78 

 degrees, with an average of about 70. During the summer the temperature varies 

 from 75 to 88 degrees, although there are occasional records where the mercury has 

 reached 92 degrees. Even at this temperature, however, no great inconvenience is 

 experienced, since the cool, strong, northeast winds, that blow from the Atlantic, straight 

 across the island, sweep into the Caribbean the overheated atmosphere that otherwise 

 would hang over the land as it does in the interior of large continents, even in latitudes 

 as high as northern Canada. 



This continual strong current of air that blows from the Atlantic during at least 

 300 days in the year, with its healthful, bracing influence, tempers the heat of the sun 

 that in latitude 22 is directly overhead and probably prevents sun strokes and heat 

 prostrations, which are absolutely unknown in Havana at any time of the year. 



During the first Government of Intervention, American soldiers in the month of 

 July and August of 1900, put shingled roofs on barracks and quarters built at Camp 

 Columbia, in the suburbs of Havana, without the slightest discomfort. Officers who 

 questioned the men with more or less anxiety, since they were not accustomed to the 

 tropics, were laughed at for their fears, the soldiers declaring that, "although the sun 

 was a little hot, the breeze was fine, and they didn't feel any heat." Of the thousands 

 of horses and mules brought from Kentucky and Missouri not one has ever fallen, or 

 suffered from heat prostration in the Island of Cuba. 



The nights are invariably cool, so much so that even in July and August, during 

 the early morning hours, a light covering is not uncomfortable. There is every reason 

 to believe that in the near future summer resorts will be successfully established on 

 many of the elevated plateaus and mountainous parks in various sections of the island. 



As an evidence of the healthfulness of the climate, the mortality of 12.60 per cent. 

 to the thousand, gives official proof that cannot be denied. Only the far-off Islands 



