Peckliam — Bituminous Deposits of Cuba. 37 



sight. Well No. 1 is eight feet in diameter walled down to 

 the bed-rock and cut out of the rock for the rest of the dis- 

 tance. There are the remains of a wooden platform inside, 

 about five feet down, which is covered with dirt and weeds. 

 Vegetation is very rank all about it. Well No. 2 is ten feet 

 in diameter, and has a high, strong stone coping around the 

 top. Water at the bottom can easily be seen. Some water 

 obtained from this well showed a trace of oil on the top. At 

 well No. 3 about three feet of two inch cast iron pipe sticking 

 out of the ground is all that can be seen. Wells No. 4 and 5 

 have been tilled up and all traces obliterated. The sample of 

 oil obtained from No. 1 is very black, and of about the con- 

 sistency of thin molasses with a strong odor. 



After inspecting this property, I was shown a natural oil 

 spring, a quarter of a mile distant from these wells, toward the 

 poor land covered with stunted palms. A small stream or 

 creek runs to the southeast, from the banks of which I saw oil 

 oozing at several points. In appearance it was the same as 

 that found in well No. 1. A Cuban told me that there were 

 several such places along this creek and that the natural 

 springs were plentiful in that vicinity. 



Some time after the visit to the Alvarez property another 

 trip was made to Sabanilla, about 30 miles directly east of 

 Cardenas. What was formerly the town of Sabanilla de la 

 Palma is now a mass of ruins, so I went to Hato Nuevo, the 

 next station to the east and 37 miles from Cardenas,. The way 

 to reach this place is indicated on tig. 1 accompanying this 

 report. As this tract is the largest I visited, I will describe 

 my journey in detail. My interpreter and myself arrived in 

 Hato Nuevo one afternoon about three o'clock. The next 

 morning with two other men we set out to find the indications 

 of bitumen. Following the railroad, we went west toward 

 Sabanilla about two miles. Crossing the railroad, we struck 

 out to the west in a zigzag course until, after riding about a 

 mile, we arrived at a place where the ground is as hard as a 

 floor and black with bitumen. There was a hole in the 

 middle of this tract from whence issues a soft maltha that is 

 very sticky. This has come out of the ground and flowed in 

 all directions, saturating everything. Several other holes of a 

 like nature were found and altogether covering nearly half an 

 acre of ground. In one corner of this tract a square hole had 

 been dug and walled up. During the late war this hole was 

 fired and burned for four months until a heavy rain finally put 

 it out. At present the ground for seventy or eighty feet 

 around this hole is covered with coke. The well itself is full 

 of water from rains and upon this floats masses of vegetation 

 stuck together with the bitumen that comes from below. A 

 pole shoved downward into the water eight or nine feet meets 



