THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 



The great size of the ore deposit ensures 

 the permanency of the work,and necessitates 

 substantial construction, both of plant and 

 dwellings. Those who are responsible for 

 these important investigations and results 

 are Charles F. Rand, president Spanish- 

 American Iron Co., Jennings S. Cox. Jr., 

 general manager, and others. The prop- 

 erty has been examined several times by 



E. C. Felton, president of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Steel Co. ; F. W. Wood, president 

 of the Maryland Steel Co. ; F. C. Smink, 

 president of the Reading Iron Co., and 

 others. 



These developments promise to be the 

 most important, if the careful estimates are 

 borne out, since the discovery of the Mesaba 

 range in i8qi. 



Maceo fought here in this grove with the Spanish general, Luque, during the early war. It is on the 



outskirts of San Cristobal. 

 Una arboleda de Palmas Reales cerca de San Cristobal. Maceo dio batalla en esta arboleda con el 

 General Espafiol Luque durante la pri mera parte de la guerra. 



THE USES OF THE ROYAL PALM. 



BY M. BENSON, CEBALLOS, CUBA. 



For beauty the magnificent royal palms 

 surpass all other varieties. Towering above 

 all vegetation, their slendor boles crowned 

 by a cluster of leaves which resemble 

 enormous plumes, they form the most pic- 

 turesque feature of an intensely picturesque 

 country. This also is a very useful tree, 

 as its trunk is easily split into strips which 

 are put to a variety of uses. The trunk 

 is without bark, and its center is very 

 porous, increasing in density as the outer 

 surface is reached. The wood takes a 

 beautiful polish, and from it handsome 

 tables are often made. 



The leaves grow from the center of the 

 trunk, with a slender spire always shooting 

 up. This spire gradually unfolds into a 

 leaf, and grows out from the parent stock 

 to a very great length. One of the peculi- 

 arities of this palm is the stem of its long 

 leaves. It is semi-circular in shape and em- 

 braces the trunk of the tree securely, hold- 

 ing the leaf in place until the time comes 



to wither and drop to the ground. This 

 stem is called the "zagua," and is often 

 found as large as a good sized board. It 

 is thin and pliable, and is made to serve 

 a variety of purposes, the principal use, 

 however, being that of a tarpaulin to cover 

 bales of goods, tobacco, etc., and during 

 the rainy season as a waterproof covering 

 for the load of the pack mules. Zagua is 

 also extensively used in place of a ridge 

 board on the palm-: hatched roofs of the 

 Cuban shacks. By soaking in water zagua 

 becomes pliable and is then fashioned into 

 a number of articles for domestic use by 

 the rural Cuban. By folding and fasten- 

 ing with a wooden pin, a catarro is made, 

 which serves as a water bucket, a wash 

 basin, a receptacle for milk, and even as 

 a kettle in which beef and yams are cooked, 

 for the water keeps the fibrous wood from 

 burning, and no salt is required in the 

 food thus cooked other than that ex- 

 tracted from the zagua in the process of 



