The Cuban Wooden Plow. 
SANTIAGO. 
Santiago de Cuba, the capital of the Province, is on the south coast, 
540 miles from Havana by the Cuba Railroad. It is reached also by steam¬ 
ship from Havana, and from Batabano and Cienfuegos on the south coast. 
I he approach by water is through a harbor entrance only 180 yards in 
width beneath the battlements of the historic Morro Castle crowning the 
summit of a rocky point 200 feet high jutting into the sea on the right of 
the harbor entrance. The seaward side of the promontory is precipitous 
and impassable; on the inner face a long flight of crumbling steps hewn 
out of the solid rock leads up from the water’s edge. Opposite the Morro 
on the left is La Socapa. Within the harbor in the rear of the Morro 
is Estrella Point with its Estrella (Star) Battery. Beyond on the left is 
Cayo Smith—Smith Key—a small island which was once captured and 
held by the British. It has a little village of red-tiled houses, with a 
chapel surmounting the hill in the center. Plobson sunk the Merrimac off 
Ratones, or Rat Key, seaward of a line from Cayo Smith and Churruca 
Point opposite. The small island near the opening of the bay was the 
old magazine for the supply of the ships of the Spanish Navy. On the 
right shore is the Cieno Reales, the coaling station, beyond which are seen 
the summer homes of Santiago merchants; then when we have passed 
Blanco Battery, the city comes into view. The town is built on a steep 
hillside overlooking the magnificent harbor, and is shut in on all sides by 
mountains. The bay is six miles in length and three miles wide at the 
greatest width. 
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