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The National Geographic Magazine 



the States. The average rainy days are 

 ten in the month, and the average humid- 

 ity for the year 75 per cent. 



The annual temperature of Habana, 

 less than ninety miles in a straight line 

 north, is mean maximum, 82^ degrees 

 to 84 degrees F. ; mean minimum, 71 

 degrees. The highest temperature on 

 record is 100.6 degrees and lowest 49.6 

 degrees. The mean annual temperature 

 is 75 degrees. The heat is oppressive on 

 account of the moisture. The prevailing 

 winds of the Isle of Pines are the north- 

 east trades, which blow with but little 

 variation throughout the year, rendering 

 the nights cool both in winter and sum- 

 mer. The range of temperature between 

 summer and winter rarely exceeds a 

 mean of 11 degrees. 



POSSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPMENT 



Dr C. Willard Hayes, of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey, says of the island : 



"Considered from the economic view- 

 point, the Isle of Pines is scarcely to be 

 compared with Cuba. Its soil is not 

 adapted for sugar raising, though certain 

 parts are probably as well adapted to 

 tobacco culture as the famous Vuelta 

 Abajo district. Much of the island would 



doubtless produce fruits, as well as cacao, 

 which latter is one of the most profitable 

 crops grown in the tropics. The industry 

 for which the island appears pre-emi- 

 nently fitted is grazing, and it will doubt- 

 less in time become an important source 

 of supply for cattle and sheep for the 

 West Indian markets. 



"It is also destined to become an im- 

 portant health resort, and all conditions 

 of climate, vegetation, and scenery com- 

 bine to render it attractive both to in- 

 valids and others who wish to escape the 

 severe northern winters. 



"The mineral resources so far as at 

 present known are confined to marble, 

 but of this there is an unlimited amount 

 of different grades, suitable for a great 

 variety of purposes. It is possible that 

 iron and manganese may both be dis- 

 covered on the island in commercial 

 quantities. 



"Unfortunately the island is without 

 deep harbors, which largely neutralizes 

 its value from a military standpoint." 



There are about 1,000 people on the 

 island, mostly Spanish and colored. In 

 the last several years a large colony of 

 Americans has grown up. The island 

 belonsrs to Cuba. 



THE PEOPLE OF MOROCCO 



" |—N HE population of Morocco has 



T 



been variously estimated at 

 from so trivial a number as four million 

 up to seventy million, but as none of our 

 authors who have made these statements 

 have been able to base their reports upon 

 any census, it is the vaguest kind of 

 guesswork," said Mr Ion Perdicaris in a 

 recent address to the National Geo- 

 graphic Society (to be published in an 

 early number of this magazine). '-'The 

 country gives to strangers who do not 

 iknow it the impression of being very 

 sparsely populated because the natives 

 avoid the neighborhood of the highroads. 

 This is due to the continual passage of 

 troops and because the inhabitants are 



also subjected to what is called the sys- 

 tem of supplying 'moona,' a system 

 which enables travelers to procure letters 

 from the government ; and these letters 

 entail upon the inhabitants of the roads 

 the necessity of supplying food, not onlv 

 for the travelers themselves, but for all 

 their escorts. It is a very serious tax, 

 and the natural consequence is that the in- 

 habitants avoid the neighborhood of the 

 highroads as much as possible. There- 

 fore the travelers going back and for- 

 ward see very few inhabitants in the very 

 few villages that still remain. But the 

 people who know the country better — the 

 merchant and others who travel in the 

 country itself — realize very soon that it is 

 very much more densely occupied than 

 would appear from the highways." 



