iio The National Geographic Magazine 



lines, the country to north and south 

 of its course. It will open for profitable 

 cultivation an area of approximately 

 10,000,000 acres, or about one-third of 

 the total acreage of the island, hitherto 

 practically undeveloped. Along its route 

 there will be sugar estates and cattle 

 ranges. There will also be groves &nd 

 orchards. Small farmers will grow veg- 

 etables and small fruits for our winter 

 market. 



Nipe Bay is but 60 hours distant from 

 New York by such steamers as will one 

 day run between the ports. Trains from 

 inland points, connecting with these 

 steamers, will bring us, for winter con- 

 sumption, fresh vegetables, strawberries, 

 and other small fruits grown under nat- 

 ural conditions and laid down in our 



eastern cities during the season when 

 such a supply is most acceptable. 



Cuba has yet to pass through a period 

 of political stress and trial, and probably 

 through a period of financial liquida- 

 tion. Her political problems will be 

 solved, probably at no distant day, by 

 her absorption into the American Union. 

 In the solution of her financial and in- 

 dustrial problems, the extension and 

 development of her railway system will 

 be an important, if not the determining, 

 factor. Upon the ashes of her insur- 

 rection, and out of the throes of political 

 reconstruction, there will come a new 

 Cuba, a land of law and order, of peace 

 arid plenty. Cuba will become in fact 

 as well as in name The Pearl of the 

 Antilles. 



THE STORM OF FEBRUARY 25-28, 1902 



THE tempestuous weather of Feb- 

 ruary, 1902, culminated in one 

 of the most remarkable storms 

 in the history of the Weather Service. 

 The storm came direct from the Pacific, 

 striking the Washington, Oregon, and 

 California coasts almost simultaneously, 

 early Tuesday morning, February 25, 

 1 902 . In the next 24 hours its front had 

 pushed well across theRocky Mountains, 

 leaving a trailof rain from San Diego and 

 the desert region of the Sotrthwest to 

 the northern bounda^. Twelve hours 

 later — that is, at 8 p. m., 75th meridian 

 time — Wednesday, February 26, it had 

 debouched over the dry plains east of 

 the Rocky Mountains as a violent wind 

 storm without precipitation. The winds 

 at the storm center on Wednesday were 

 relatively light — 10 to 12 miles per 

 hour — but around the periphery of the 

 storm, in the southwest quadrant, espe- 

 cially, winds of 60 to 70 miles per hour 

 prevailed. 



The movement of the storm after leav- 

 ing: Oklahoma, where it was central 



Wednesday evening, wais quite slow. 

 It reached southwestern Missouri by 8 

 o'clock Thursday morning, and eastern 

 Iowa by Friday morning at the same 

 hour. Thence it moved slowly north- 

 eastward into the upper lake region, 

 where it was last observed Saturday 

 evening, March 1. The effect of the 

 slow movement of the storm during and 

 subsequently to the time of recurving 

 in Oklahoma and Arkansas was to set 

 the air east of the Rocky Mountains in 

 motion around the storm center in a 

 direction contrary to the" movement of 

 the hands of a watch. The weather 

 map of Friday, February 28, 1902, il- 

 lustrates the whirling of the air about 

 a central point most beautiful^, and 

 at the same time presents the rather 

 unique spectacle of the entire surface 

 stratum of air, from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains to the Atlantic, circling in a gi- 

 gantic whirl about a single storm center. 

 This circulation naturally produced 

 striking contrasts in the weather expe- 

 rienced in widely separated parts of the 



