816 



humboldt's ctjba. 



ship timber at a moderate price. In 1796 Count 

 Jaruco j Mopox, an estimable and enterprising gen- 

 tleman, who possessed great influence at court 

 • through his intimacy with the Prince of the Peace, 

 undertook the revival of this project, and in 1798 

 the survey was made by two engineers of great 

 merit, 1 Don Francisco and Don Felix Lemaur, who 

 found that the length of the canal would be nineteen 

 leagues, of five thousand varas each ; that the high- 

 est point was at the Taverna del Eey, and that 

 nineteen locks on the northern slope, and twenty-one 

 on the southern, would be required. In a direct 

 line there are only eight and one-third maritime 



* 



leagues, from Havana to Batabano. The canal of 

 Guines, even as a canal for the smaller navigation, 

 would be of great utility in the transportation of 

 agricultural products by steam vessels, for it would 

 pass through the most highly cultivated lands. 



In no part of the world do the roads become more 

 impassable during the rainy season, than in that part 

 of the island, where the soil is a decomposing lime- 

 stone ill adapted to the making of wheel-roads. 

 The transportation of sugar from Guines to Havana, 



1 This survey gave the following elevations in Burgos feet ; 

 Cerro, near the bridge of the Zanja, 106.2 ; Taverna del Key, 

 329.3 ; town of Rincon, 295.3 ; lagoon of Zaldivar, when filled up, 

 237.3 ; Quivican, 166.1 ; Village of Batabano, 21.3.— H. 



