CUBA 217 



the island and easy access for oceanic and coastal transportation. 

 These harbors are nearly all pouch-shaped inlets indenting the 

 coast, with narrow outlets pointed by elevated reef rock and 

 capable of accommodating large numbers of vessels. They are 

 so conveniently situated as regards different portions of the 

 island that the trade of Cuba may be said literally to pass out at 

 a hundred gates. The chief of these harbors are Habana, Ma- 

 tanzas, Nuevitas, Gibara, Nipe, and Baracoa, on the north coast, 

 and Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Manzanillo, Trinidad, and 

 Cienfuegos, on the south. The last mentioned is said to be one 

 of the finest harbors in the world. Habana, Cienfuegos, and 

 Santiago are regularly visited by American and Spanish steam- 

 ers, while coastal steamers circumnavigate the island, touching 

 at the minor ports, which are also sought by many tramps and 

 sailing vessels in search of cargoes. 



SHIPPING 



The shipping trade, both foreign and coastal, is extensive, the 

 American tonnage alone amounting to 1,000,000 per annum. 

 About 1,200 ocean vessels, steam and sail, annually clear from 

 Habana, while the sugar crop finds an outlet at all the principal 

 ports. Lines of steamers coast the island, the north coast being 

 served by lines from Habana and the south by lines from Bata- 

 bano, the southern entrepot of Habana. The tonnage of Ha- 

 bana and eight other ports for 1894 amounted to 3,538,539 tons, 

 carried by 31,181 vessels. 



RAILWAYS 



The railways aggregate less than 1,000 miles of line, and con- 

 sist principally of the united system of Habana, extending 

 through the tobacco and sugar districts of the west and center, 

 and connecting the capital with Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, Bata- 

 bano, Cienfuegos, and Sagua, the system terminating at Santa 

 Clara, 150 miles east of Habana. The entire half of the island 

 east of Cienfuegos and Sagua is dependent upon water com- 

 munication, although several short local lines extend interior- 

 ward from Nuevitas, Remedios, and Santiago. 



There were about 2,810 miles of telegraph line in 1895, includ- 

 ing nearly 1,000 miles of cable, connecting the cities of the south 

 coast and the Isle of Pines with Habana, via Batabano. 



