CHAPTER I 

 Overland to La Esperanza 



THE line of the Western Railway of Cuba 

 follows the level central portion of the 

 island and passes through the famous 

 Vuelta Abajo. Just before entering the 

 Pinar del Rio province the eastern projections of 

 the Sierra de los Organos appear. From the car 

 windows ranges of mountains to the north are 

 thereafter always in sight, and many of the 

 station names along the line recall places made 

 familiar to us by the early naturalists of Cuba, — 

 Candelaria, Artemisa, Paso Real, Rangel, San 

 Diego Banos, — all having a type-locality sound. 

 The mountains as seen from the cars, however, 

 do not present the characteristic sierra aspect. 



The soil of the plain traversed by the railroad, 

 called the "lower valley" (Vuelta Abajo) is of 

 deep brick-red color derived from the iron salts 

 leached out of ore beds that exist in greater or less 

 extent throughout the hills of Western Cuba. It is 



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