CAPE SAN ANTONIO 191 



dustry of this region. The company operating it 

 maintains a fleet of schooners and the tramway 

 already referred to. The life of the charcoal- 

 burner is a lonely one and full of trouble, for he 

 must live amid clouds of mosquitoes and jejenes, 

 and his pecuniary rewards are small. 



Landing in a drenching rain we sought shelter 

 in the lightkeeper's house where we met with the 

 accustomed Cuban welcome and hospitality which 

 we had learned to accept as a matter of course. 

 Coffee and hot milk (canned) were served in glass 

 goblets, while the numerous progeny of the house 

 fanned us to keep off the mosquitoes that other- 

 wise would have carried us off bodily. 



At the light a wall of coarse much-weathered 

 Pleistocene limestone rises perpendicularly about 

 twenty feet from the sand beach, and upon this 

 shelf or platform are built the lighthouse and its 

 auxiliary buildings and also some few houses 

 belonging to the fraternity of the charcoal men. 

 South of the light, the sand beach is interrupted 

 with patches of rock, sometimes being wholly 

 replaced by areas of coral limestone (Seboruco), 

 while occasional reefs project from the shore. 

 Back of the rocky ledge of the shore is a narrow 



