Chapter 17

References.—An introduction to crystallography is given in most text-books of mineralogy,e.g.those of H. A. Miers and of E. S. Dana (seeMineralogy). The standard work treating of the subject generally is that of P. Groth,Physikalische Kristallographie(4th ed., Leipzig, 1905). A condensed summary is given by A. J. Moses,The Characters of Crystals(New York, 1899).For geometrical crystallography, dealing exclusively with the external form of crystals, reference may be made to N. Story-Maskelyne,Crystallography, a Treatise on the Morphology of Crystals(Oxford, 1895) and W. J. Lewis,A Treatise on Crystallography(Cambridge, 1899). Theories of crystal structure are discussed by L. Sohncke,Entwickelung einer Theorie der Krystallstruktur(Leipzig, 1879); A. Schoenflies,Krystallsysteme und Krystallstructur(Leipzig, 1891); and H. Hilton,Mathematical Crystallography and the Theory of Groups of Movements(Oxford, 1903).The physical properties of crystals are treated by T. Liebisch,Physikalische Krystallographie(Leipzig, 1891), and in a more elementary form in hisGrundriss der physikalischen Krystallographie(Leipzig, 1896); E. Mallard,Traité de cristallographie, Cristallographie physique(Paris, 1884); C. Soret,Éléments de cristallographie physique(Geneva and Paris, 1893).For an account of the relations between crystalline form and chemical composition, see A. Arzruni,Physikalische Chemie der Krystalle(Braunschweig, 1893); A. Fock,An Introduction to Chemical Crystallography, translated by W. J. Pope (Oxford, 1895); P. Groth,An Introduction to Chemical Crystallography, translated by H. Marshall (London, 1906); A. E. H. Tutton,Crystalline Structure and Chemical Constitution, 1910. Descriptive works giving the crystallographic constants of different substances are C. F. Rammelsberg,Handbuch der krystallographisch-physikalischen Chemie(Leipzig, 1881-1882); P. Groth,Chemische Krystallographie(Leipzig, 1906); and of minerals the treatises of J. D. Dana and C. Hintze.

For geometrical crystallography, dealing exclusively with the external form of crystals, reference may be made to N. Story-Maskelyne,Crystallography, a Treatise on the Morphology of Crystals(Oxford, 1895) and W. J. Lewis,A Treatise on Crystallography(Cambridge, 1899). Theories of crystal structure are discussed by L. Sohncke,Entwickelung einer Theorie der Krystallstruktur(Leipzig, 1879); A. Schoenflies,Krystallsysteme und Krystallstructur(Leipzig, 1891); and H. Hilton,Mathematical Crystallography and the Theory of Groups of Movements(Oxford, 1903).

The physical properties of crystals are treated by T. Liebisch,Physikalische Krystallographie(Leipzig, 1891), and in a more elementary form in hisGrundriss der physikalischen Krystallographie(Leipzig, 1896); E. Mallard,Traité de cristallographie, Cristallographie physique(Paris, 1884); C. Soret,Éléments de cristallographie physique(Geneva and Paris, 1893).

For an account of the relations between crystalline form and chemical composition, see A. Arzruni,Physikalische Chemie der Krystalle(Braunschweig, 1893); A. Fock,An Introduction to Chemical Crystallography, translated by W. J. Pope (Oxford, 1895); P. Groth,An Introduction to Chemical Crystallography, translated by H. Marshall (London, 1906); A. E. H. Tutton,Crystalline Structure and Chemical Constitution, 1910. Descriptive works giving the crystallographic constants of different substances are C. F. Rammelsberg,Handbuch der krystallographisch-physikalischen Chemie(Leipzig, 1881-1882); P. Groth,Chemische Krystallographie(Leipzig, 1906); and of minerals the treatises of J. D. Dana and C. Hintze.

(L. J. S.)

1From the Greek letter δ, Δ; in general, a triangular-shaped object; also an alternative name for a trapezoid.2Named after pyrites, which crystallizes in a typical form of this class.3Fromπλάγιος, placed sideways, referring to the absence of planes and centre of symmetry.4Fromγῦρος, a ring or spiral, andεἶδος, form.5Fromμόνος, single, andκλίειν, to incline, since one axis is inclined to the plane of the other two axes, which are at right angles.

1From the Greek letter δ, Δ; in general, a triangular-shaped object; also an alternative name for a trapezoid.

2Named after pyrites, which crystallizes in a typical form of this class.

3Fromπλάγιος, placed sideways, referring to the absence of planes and centre of symmetry.

4Fromγῦρος, a ring or spiral, andεἶδος, form.

5Fromμόνος, single, andκλίειν, to incline, since one axis is inclined to the plane of the other two axes, which are at right angles.

CRYSTAL PALACE, THE,a well-known English resort, standing high up in grounds just outside the southern boundary of the county of London, in the neighbourhood of Sydenham. The building, chiefly of iron and glass, is flanked by two towers and is visible from far over the metropolis. It measures 1608 ft. in length by 384 ft. across the transepts, and was opened in its present site in 1854. The materials, however, were mainly those of the hall set up in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The designer was Sir Joseph Paxton. In the palace there are various permanent exhibitions, while special exhibitions are held from time to time, also concerts, winter pantomimes and other entertainments. In the extensive grounds there is accommodation for all kinds of games: the final tie of the Association Football Cup and other important football matches are played here, and there are also displays of fireworks and other attractions.

CSENGERY, ANTON(1822-1880), Hungarian publicist, and a historical writer of great influence on his time, was born at Nagyvárad on the 2nd of June 1822. He took, at an early date, a very active part in the literary and political movements immediately preceding the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. He and Baron Sigismund Kemény may be considered as the two founders of high-class Magyar journalism. After 1867 the greatest of modern Hungarian statesmen, Francis Deák, attached Csengery to his personal service, and many of the momentous state documents inspired or suggested by Deák were drawn up by Csengery. In that manner his influence, as represented by the text of many a statute regulating the relations between Austria and Hungary, is one of an abiding character. As a historical writer he excelled chiefly in brilliant and thoughtful essays on the leading political personalities of his time, such as Paul Nagy, Bertalan, Szemere and others. He also commenced a translation of Macaulay’sHistory. He died at Budapest on the 13th of July 1880.

CSIKY, GREGOR(1842-1891), Hungarian dramatist, was born on the 8th of December 1842 at Pankota, in the county of Arad. He studied Roman Catholic theology at Pest and Vienna, and was professor in the Priests’ College at Temesvár from 1870 to 1878. In the latter year, however, he joined the Evangelical Church, and took up literature. Beginning with novels and works on ecclesiastical history, which met with some recognition, he ultimately devoted himself to writing for the stage. Here his success was immediate. In hisAz ellenállhatatlan(“L’Irrésistible”), which obtained a prize from the Hungarian Academy, he showed the distinctive features of his talent—directness, freshness, realistic vigour, and highly individual style. In rapid succession he enriched Magyar literature with realisticgenre-pictures, such asA Proletárok(“Proletariate”),Buborckok(“Bubbles”),Két szerelem(“Two Loves”),A szégyenlös(“The Bashful”),Athalia, &c., in all of which he seized on one or another feature or type of modern life, dramatizing it with unusual intensity, qualified by chaste and well-balanced diction. Of the latter, his classical studies may, no doubt, be taken as the inspiration, and his translation of Sophocles and Plautus will long rank with the most successful of Magyar translations of the ancient classics. Among the best known of his novels areArnold,Az Atlasz család(“The Atlas Family”). He died at Budapest on the 19th of November 1891.

CSOKONAI, MIHALY VITEZ(1773-1805), Hungarian poet, was born at Debreczen in 1773. Having been educated in his native town, he was appointed while still very young to the professorship of poetry there; but soon after he was deprived of the post on account of the immorality of his conduct. The remaining twelve years of his short life were passed in almost constant wretchedness, and he died in his native town, and in his mother’s house, when only thirty-one years of age. Csokonai was a genial and original poet with something of the lyrical fire of Petöfi, and wrote a mock-heroic poem calledDorottya or the Triumph of the Ladies at the Carnival, two or three comedies or farces, and a number of love-poems. Most of his works have been published, with a life, by Schedel (1844-1847).

CSOMA DE KÖRÖS, ALEXANDER(c.1790-1842), or, as the name is written in Hungarian,Körösi Csoma Sándor, Hungarian traveller and philologist, born about 1790 at Körös in Transylvania, belonged to a noble family which had sunk into poverty. He was educated at Nagy-Enyed and at Göttingen; and, in order to carry out the dream of his youth and discover the origin of his countrymen, he divided his attention between medicine and the Oriental languages. In 1820, having received from a friend the promise of an annuity of 100 florins (about £10) to support him during his travels, he set out for the East. He visited Egypt, and made his way to Tibet, where he spent four years in a Buddhist monastery studying the language and the Buddhist literature. To his intense disappointment he soon discovered that he could not thus obtain any assistance in his great object; but, having visited Bengal, his knowledge of Tibetan obtained him employment in the library of the Asiatic Society there, which possessed more than 1000 volumes in that language; and he was afterwards supported by the government while he published a Tibetan-English dictionary and grammar (both of which appeared at Calcutta in 1834). He also contributed several articles on the Tibetan language and literature to theJournal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and he published an analysis of theKah-Gyur, the most important of the Buddhist sacred books. Meanwhile his fame had reached his native country, and procured him a pension from the government, which, with characteristic devotion to learning, he devoted to the purchase of books for Indian libraries. He spent some time in Calcutta, studying Sanskrit and several other languages; but, early in 1842, he commenced his second attempt to discover the origin of the Hungarians, but he died at Darjiling on the 11th of April 1842. An oration was delivered in his honour before the Hungarian Academy by Eötvös, the novelist.

A, Adradial canals.

F, Infundibulum.

I, Interradial canal.

M, Meridianal canal lying under a costa.

N, Ciliated furrow from sense pole to costa.

Pg, Paragastric canal.

SO, Sense-organ.

St, Stomodaeum.

Subs, Subsagittal costa.

Subt, Subtentacular costa.

T, Tentacle.

Ts, Boundaries of tentacle-sheath.

T(centrally), Tentacular canal, and (distally) tentacle.

♂, Position of testes.

♀, Position of ovaries; other letters in fig. 1. The stomodaeum lies in the sagittal plane, the funnel and tentacles in the transverse or tentacular plane.

CTENOPHORA,in zoology, a class of jelly-fish which were briefly described by Professor T. H. Huxley in 1875 (seeActinozoa,Ency. Brit.9th ed. vol. i.) as united with what we now term Anthozoa to form the group Actinozoa; but little was known of the intimate structure of those remarkable and beautiful forms till the appearance in 1880 of C. Chun’s Monograph of the Ctenophora occurring in the Bay of Naples. They may be defined as Coelentera which exhibit both a radial and bilateral symmetry of organs; with a stomodaeum; with a mesenchyma which is partly gelatinous but partly cellular; with eight meridianal rows of vibratile paddles formed of long fused or matted cilia; lacking nematocysts (except in one genus). An example common on the British coasts is furnished byHormiphora(Cydippe). In outward form this is an egg-shaped ball of clear jelly, having a mouth at the pointed (oral) pole, and a sense-organ at the broader (aboral) pole. It possesses eight meridians (costae) of iridescent paddles in constant vibration, which run from near one pole towards the other; it has also two pendent feathery tentacles of considerable length, which can be retracted into pouches. The mouth leads into an ectodermal stomodaeum (“stomach”), and the latter into an endodermal funnel (infundibulum); these two are compressed in planes at right angles to one another, the sectional long axis of the stomodaeum lying in the so-called sagittal (stomodaeal or gastric) plane, that of the funnel in the transverse (tentacular or funnel) plane. From the funnel, canals are given off in three directions; (a) a pair of paragastric (stomachal, or stomodaeal) canals run orally, parallel to the stomodaeum, and end blindly near the mouth; (b) a pair of perradial canals run in the transverse plane towards the equator of the animal; each of these becomes divided into two short canals at the base of the tentacle sheath which they supply, but has previously given off a pair of short interradial canals, which again bifurcate into two adradial canals; all these branches lie in the equatorial plane of the animal, but the eight adradial canals then open into eight meridianal canals which run orally and aborally under the costae; (c) a pair of aboral vessels which run towards the sense-organ, each of which bifurcates; of the four vessels thus formed, two only open at the sides of the sense-organ, forming the so-called excretory apertures. These three sets of structures, with the funnel from which they rise, make up the endodermal coelenteron, or gastro-vascular system. The generative organs are endodermal by origin, borne at the sides of the meridianal canals as indicated by the signs ♂ ♀. There exists a subepithelial plexus with nerve cellsand fibres, similar to that of jelly-fishes. The sense-organ of the aboral pole is complex, and lies under a dome of fused cilia shaped like an inverted bell-jar; it consists of an otolith, formed of numerous calcareous spheroids, which is supported on four plates of fused cilia termed balancers, but is otherwise free. The ciliated ectoderm below the organ is markedly thickened, and perhaps functionally represents a nerve-ganglion: from it eight ciliated furrows radiate outwards, two passing under each balancer as through an archway, and diverge each to the head of a meridianal costa. These ciliated furrows stain deeply with osmic acid, and nervous impulses are certainly transmitted along them. Locomotion is effected by strokes of the paddles in an aboral direction, driving the animal mouth forwards through the water: each paddle or comb (Gr.κτείς; hence Ctenophora) consists of a plate of fused or matted cilia set transversely to the costa. The myoepithelial cells (formerly termed neuro-muscular cells), characteristic of other Coelentera, are not to be found in this group. On the other hand there are well-marked muscle fibres in definite layers, derived from special mesoblastic cells in the embryo, which are embedded in a jelly; these in their origin and arrangement are quite comparable to the mesoderm of Triploblastica, and, although the muscle-cells of some jelly-fish exhibit a somewhat similar condition, nothing so highly specialized as the mesenchyme of Ctenophora occurs in any other Coelenterate. The nematocysts being nearly absent from their group, their chief function is carried out by adhesive lasso-cells.

The Ctenophora are classified as follows:—

TheTentaculata, as the name implies, may be recognized by the presence of tentacles of some sort. TheCydippideaare generally spherical or ovoid, with two long retrusible pinnate tentacles: the meridianal and paragastric canals end blindly. An example of these has already been briefly described. TheLobataare of the same general type as the first Order, except for the presence of four circumoral auricles (processes of the subtransverse costae) and of a pair of sagittal outgrowths or lobes, on to which the subsagittal costae are continued. Small accessory tentacles lie in grooves, but there is no tentacular pouch; the meridianal vessels anastomose in the lobes. In theCestoideathe body is compressed in the transverse plane, elongated in the sagittal plane, so as to become riband-like: the subtransverse costae are greatly reduced, the subsagittal costae extend along the aboral edge of the riband. The subsagittal canals lie immediately below their costae aborally, but continuations of the subtransverse canals round down the middle of the riband, and at its end unite, not only with the subsagittal but also with the paragastric canals which run along the oral edge of the riband. The tentacular bases and pouches are present, but there is no main tentacle as in Cydippidea; fine accessory tentacles lie in four grooves along the oral edge. The sub-classNudahave no tentacles of any kind; they are conical or ovoid, with a capacious stomodaeum like the cavity of a thimble. There is a coelenteric network formed by anastomoses of the meridianal and paragastric canals all over the body.The embryology ofCallianirahas been worked out by E. Mechnikov. Segmentation is complete and unequal, producing macromeres and micromeres marked by differences in the size and in yolk-contents. The micromeres give rise to the ectoderm; each of the sixteen macromeres, after budding off a small mesoblast cell, passes on as endoderm. A gastrula is established by a mixed process of embole and epibole. The mesoblast cells travel to the aboral pole of the embryo, and there form a cross-shaped mass, the arms of which lie in the sagittal and transverse planes (perradii).

The embryology ofCallianirahas been worked out by E. Mechnikov. Segmentation is complete and unequal, producing macromeres and micromeres marked by differences in the size and in yolk-contents. The micromeres give rise to the ectoderm; each of the sixteen macromeres, after budding off a small mesoblast cell, passes on as endoderm. A gastrula is established by a mixed process of embole and epibole. The mesoblast cells travel to the aboral pole of the embryo, and there form a cross-shaped mass, the arms of which lie in the sagittal and transverse planes (perradii).

Subs, Subsagittal costae.

Subt, Much reduced subtentacular costae.

Subt, Branch of the subtentacular canal which runs along the centre of the riband.

Pg, Continuation of the paragastric canal at right angles to its original direction along the lower edge of the riband. At the right-hand end the last two are seen to unite with the subsagittal canal.

There can be but little question of the propriety of including Ctenophora among the Coelentera. The undivided coelenteron (gastro-vascular system) which constitutes the sole cavity of the body, the largely radial symmetry, the presence of endodermal generative organs on the coelenteric canals, the subepithelial nerve-plexus, the mesogloea-like matrix of the body—all these features indicate affinity to other Coelentera, but, as has been stated in the article under that title, the relation is by no means close. At what period the Ctenophora branched off from the line of descent, which culminated in the Hydromedusae and Scyphozoa of to-day, is not clear, but it is practically certain that they did so before the point of divergence of these two groups from one another. The peculiar sense-organ, the specialization of the cilia into paddles with the corresponding modifications of the coelenteron, the anatomy and position of the tentacles, and, above all, the character and mode of formation of the mesenchyme, separate them widely from other Coelentera.

The last-named character, however, combined with the discovery of two remarkable organisms,CoeloplanaandCtenoplana, has suggested affinity to the flat-worms termed Turbellaria.Ctenoplana, the best known of these, has recently been redescribed by A. Willey (Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci.xxxix., 1896). It is flattened along the axis which unites sense-organ and mouth, so as to give it a dorsal (aboral) surface, and a ventral (oral) surface on which it frequently creeps. Its costae are very short, and retrusible; its two tentacles are pinnate and are also retrusible. Two crescentic rows of ciliated papillae lie in the transverse plane on each side of the sense-organ. The coelenteron exhibits six lobes, two of which Willey identifies with the stomodaeum of other Ctenophora; the other four give rise to a system of anastomosing canals such as are found inBeroëand Polyclad Turbellaria. An aboral vessel embraces the sense-organ, but has no external opening.Ctenoplanais obviously a Ctenophoran flattened and of a creeping habit.Coeloplanais of similar form and habit, with two Ctenophoran tentacles: it has no costae, but is uniformly ciliated. These two forms at least indicate a possible stepping-stone from Ctenophora toTurbellaria, that is to say, from diploblastic to triploblastic Metazoa. By themselves they would present no very weighty argument for this line of descent from two-layered to three-layered forms, but the coincidences which occur in the development of Ctenophora and Turbellaria,—the methods of segmentation and gastrulation, of the separation of the mesoblast cells, and of mesenchyme formation,—together with the marked similarity of the adult mesenchyme in the two groups, have led many to accept this pedigree. In his Monograph on the Polyclad Turbellaria of the Bay of Naples, A. Lang regards a Turbellarian, so to say, as a Ctenophora, in which the sensory pole has rotated forwards in the sagittal plane through 90° as regards the original oral-aboral axis, a rotation which actually occurs in the development ofThysanozoon(Müller’s larva); and he sees, in the eight lappets of the preoral ciliated ring of such a larva, the rudiments of the costal plates. According to his view, a simple early Turbellarian larva, such as that ofStylochus, most nearly represents for us to-day that ancestor from which Ctenophora and Turbellaria are alike derived. For details of this brilliant theory, the reader is referred to the original monograph.

Literature.—G. C. Bourne, “The Ctenophora,” in Ray Lankester’sTreatise on Zoology(1900), where a bibliography is given; G. Curreri, “Osservazioni sui ctenofori,”Boll. Soc. Zool. Ital.(2), i. pp. 190-193 et ii. pp. 58-76; A. Garbe, “Untersuchungen über die Entstehung der Geschlechtsorgane bei den Ctenophoren.,”Zeitschr. Wiss. Zool.lxix. pp. 472-491; K. C. Schneider,Lehrbuch der vergleich. Histologie(1902).

(G. H. Fo.)

CTESIAS,of Cnidus in Caria, Greek physician and historian, flourished in the 5th centuryB.C.In early life he was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he accompanied (401) on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger. Ctesias was the author of treatises on rivers, and on the Persian revenues, of an account of India (which is of value as recording the beliefs of the Persians about India), and of a history of Assyria and Persia in 23 books, calledPersica, written in opposition to Herodotus in the Ionic dialect, and professedly founded on the Persian royal archives. The first six books treated of the history of Assyria and Babylon to the foundation of the Persian empire; the remaining seventeen went down to the year 398. Of the two histories we possess abridgments by Photius, and fragments are preserved in Athenaeus, Plutarch and especially Diodorus Siculus, whose second book is mainly from Ctesias. As to the worth of thePersicathere has been much controversy, both in ancient and modern times. Being based upon Persian authorities, it was naturally looked upon with suspicion by the Greeks and censured as untrustworthy.

For an estimate of Ctesias as a historian see G. Rawlinson’sHerodotus, i. 71-74; also the edition of the fragments of thePersicaby J. Giimore (1888, with introduction and notes and list of authorities).

CTESIPHON,a large village on the left bank of the Tigris, opposite to Seleucia, of which it formed a suburb, about 25 m. below Bagdad. It is first mentioned in the year 220 by Polybius v. 45. 4. When the Parthian Arsacids had conquered the lands east of the Euphrates in 129B.C., they established their winter residence in Ctesiphon. They dared not stay in Seleucia, as this city, the most populous town of western Asia, always maintained her Greek self-government and a strong feeling of independence, which made her incline to the west whenever a Roman army attacked the Parthians. The Arsacids also were afraid of destroying the wealth and commerce of Seleucia, if they entered it with their large retinue of barbarian officials and soldiers (Strabo xvi. 743, Plin. vi. 122, cf. Joseph.Ant.xviii. 9, 2). From this time Ctesiphon increased in size, and many splendid buildings rose; it had the outward appearance of a large town, although it was by its constitution only a village. FromA.D.36-43 Seleucia was in rebellion against the Parthians till at last it was forced by King Vardanes to yield. It is very probable that Vardanes now tried to put Ctesiphon in its place; therefore he is called founder of Ctesiphon by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6. 23), where King Pacorus (78-110) is said to have increased its inhabitants and built its walls. Seleucia was destroyed by the Romans inA.D.164. When Ardashir I. founded the Sassanian empire (226), and fixed his residence at Ctesiphon, he built up Seleucia again under the name of Veh-Ardashir. Later kings added other suburbs; Chosroes I. in 540 established the inhabitants of Antiochia in Syria, whom he had led into captivity, in a new city, “Chosrau-Antioch” (or “the Roman city”) near his residence. Therefore the Arabs designate the whole complex of towns which lay together around Seleucia and Ctesiphon and formed the residence of the Sassanids by the name Madāin, “the cities,”—their number is often given as seven. In the wars between the Roman and Persian empires, Ctesiphon was more than once besieged and plundered, thus by Odaenathus in 261, and by Canis in 283; Julian in 363 advanced to Ctesiphon, but was not able to take it (Ammianus xxiv. 7). After the battle of Kadisiya (Qādisīya) Ctesiphon and the neighbouring towns were taken and plundered by the Arabs in 637, who brought home an immense amount of booty (seeCaliphate). From then, these towns decayed before the increasing prosperity of the new Arab capitals Basra and Bagdad. The site is marked only by the ruins of one gigantic building of brick-work, called Takhti Khesra, “throne of Khosrau” (i.e.Chosroes). It is a great vaulted hall ornamented with pilasters, the remainder of the palace and the most splendid example of Sassanian architecture (seeArchitecture, vol. ii. p. 558, for further details and illustration). (Ed. M.)

CUBA(the aboriginal name), a republic, the largest and most populous of the West India Islands, included between the meridians of 74° 7′ and 84° 57′ W. longitude and (roughly) the parallels of 19° 48′ and 23° 13′ N. latitude. It divides the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico into two passages of nearly equal width,—the Strait of Florida, about 110 m. wide between Capes Hicacos in Cuba and Arenas in Florida (Key West being a little over 100 m. from Havana); and the Yucatan Channel, about 130 m. wide between Capes San Antonio and Catoche. On the N.E., E. and S.E., narrower channels separate it from the Bahamas, Haiti (50 m.) and Jamaica (85 m.). In 1908, by the opening of a railway along the Florida Keys, the time of passage by water between Cuba and the United States was reduced to a few hours.

The island is long and narrow, somewhat in the form of an irregular crescent, convex toward the N. It has a decided pitch to the S. Its length from Cape Maisí to Cape San Antonio along a medial line is about 730 m.; its breadth, which averages about 50 m., ranges from a maximum of 160 m. to a minimum of about 22 m. The total area is estimated at 41,634 sq. m. without the surrounding keys and the Isle of Pines (area about 1180 sq. m.), and including these is approximately 44,164. The geography of the island is still very imperfectly known, and all figures are approximate only. The coast line, including larger bays, but excluding reefs, islets, keys and all minute sinuosities, is about 2500 m. in length. The N. littoral is characterized by bluffs, which grow higher and higher toward the east, rising to 600 ft. at Cape Maisí. They are marked by distinct terraces. The southern coast near Cape Maisí is low and sandy. From Guantánamo to Santiago it rises in high escarpments, and W. of Santiago, where the Sierra Maestra runs close to the sea, there is a very high abrupt shore. To the W. of Manzanillo it sinks again, and throughout most of the remaining distance to Cape San Antonio is low, with a sandy or marshy littoral; at places sand hills fringe the shore; near Trinidad there are hills of considerable height; and the coast becomes high and rugged W. of Point Fisga, in the province of Pinar del Rio. On both the N. and the S. side of the island there are long chains of islets and reefs and coral keys (of which it is estimated there are 1300), which limit access to probably half of the coast, and on the N. render navigation difficult and dangerous. On the S. they are covered with mangroves. A large part of the southern littoral is subject to overflow, and much more of it is permanently marshy. The Zapata Swamp near Cienfuegos is 600 sq. m. in area; other large swamps are the Majaguillar, E. of Cárdenas, and the Ciénaga del Buey, S. of the Cauto river. The Isle of Pines in its northern part is hilly and wooded; in its southern part, very low, level and rather barren; a tidal swamp almost cuts the island in two.A remarkable feature of the Cuban coast is the number of excellent anchorages, roadsteads and harbours. On the N. shore, beginning at the W., Bahía Honda, Havana, Matanzas, Cardenas, Nuevitas and Nipe; and on the S. shore running westward Guantánamo, Santiago and Cienfuegos, are harbours of the first class, several of them among the best of the world. Mariel, Cabañas, Banes, Sagua la Grande and Baracoa on the N., and Manzanillo, Santa Cruz, Batabanó and Trinidad on the S. are also excellent ports or anchorages. The peculiar pouch-shape of almost all the harbours named (Matanzas being a marked exception) greatly increases their security and defensibility. These pouch harbours are probably “drowned” drainage basins. The number of small bays that can be utilized for coast trade traffic is extraordinary.

(Click to enlarge.)

In popular language the different portions of the island are distinguished as the Vuelta Abajo (“lower turn”), W. of Havana; the Vuelta Arriba (“upper turn”), E. of Havana to Cienfuegos—Vuelta Abajo and Vuelta Arriba are also used colloquially at any point in the island to mean “east” and “west”—Las Cinco Villas—i.e.Villa Clara, Trinidad, Remedios, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus—between Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus; and Tierra Adentro, referring to the region between Cienfuegos and Bayamo. These names are extremely common. The province and city of Puerto Príncipe are officially known as Camagüey, their original Indian name, which has practically supplanted the Spanish name in local usage.

Five topographic divisions of the island are fairly marked. Santiago (now Oriente) province is high and mountainous. Camagüey is characterized by rolling, open plains, slightly broken, especially in the W., by low mountains. The E. part of Santa Clara province is decidedly rough and broken. The W. part, with the provinces of Matanzas and Havana, is flat and rolling, with occasional hills a few hundred feet high. Finally, Pinar del Rio is dominated by a prominent mountain range and by outlying piedmont hills and mesas. There are mountains in Cuba from one end of the island to the other, but they are not derived from any central mass and are not continuous. As just indicated there are three distinctively mountainous districts, various minor groups lying outside these. The three main systems are known in Cuba as the occidental, central and oriental. The first, the Organ mountains, in Pinar del Rio, rises in a sandy, marshy region near Cape San Antonio. The crest runs near the N. shore, leaving various flanking spurs and foothills, and a coastal plain which at its greatest breadth on the S. is some 20 m. wide. The plain on the N. is narrower and higher. The southern slope is smooth, and abounds in creeks and rivers. The portion of the southern plain between the bays of Cortés and Majana is the most famous portion of the Vuelta Abajo tobacco region. The mountain range is capriciously broken at points, especially near Bejucal. The highest part is the Pan de Guajaibón, near Bahía Honda, at the W. end of the chain; its altitude has been variously estimated from 2500 to 1950 ft. The central system has two wings, one approaching the N. coast, the other covering the island between Sancti Spiritus and Santa Clara. It comprehends a number of independent groups. The highest point, the Pico Potrerillo, is about 2900 ft. in altitude. The summits are generally well rounded, while the lower slopes are often steep. Frequent broad intervals of low upland or low level plain extend from sea to sea between and around the mountains. Near the coast runs a continuous belt of plantations, while grazing, tobacco and general farm lands cover the lower slopes of the hills, and virgin forests much of the uplands and mountains.

The oriental mountain region includes the province of Oriente and a portion of Camagüey. In extent, in altitude, in mass, in complexity and in geological interest, it is much the most important of the three systems. Almost all the mountains are very bold. They are imperfectly known. There are two main ranges, the Sierra Maestra, and a line of various groups along the N. shore. The former runs from Cape Santa Cruz eastward along the coast some 125 m. to beyond the river Baconao. The Sierra de Cobre, a part of the system in the vicinity of Santiago, has a general elevation of about 3000 ft. Monte Turquino, 7700-8320 ft. in altitude, is the highest peak of the island. Gran Piedra rises more than 5200 ft., the Ojo del Toro more than 3300, the Anvil de Baracoa is somewhat lower, and Pan de Matanzas is about 1267 ft. The western portions of the range rise abruptly from the ocean, forming a bold and beautiful coast. A multitude of ravines and gullies, filled with torrential streams or dry, according to the season of the year, and characterized by many beautiful cascades, seam the narrow coastal plain and the flanks of the mountains. The spurs of the central range are a highly intricate complex, covered with dense forests of superb woods. Many points are inaccessible, and the scenery is wild in the extreme. The mountains beyond Guantánamo are locally known by a variety of names, though topographically a continuation of the Sierra Maestra. The same is true of the chains that coalesce with these near Cape Maisí and diverge northwesterly along the N. coast of the island. The general character of this northern marginal system is much the same as that of the southern, save that the range is much lesscontinuous. A dozen or more groups from Nipe in the E. to the coast N. of Camagüey in the W. are known only by individual names. The range near Baracoa isextremelywild and broken. The region between the lines of the two coastal systems is a much dissected plateau, imperfectly explored. The Cauto river, the only one flowing E. or W. and the largest of Cuba, flows through it westward to the southern coast near Manzanillo. The scenery in the oriental portion of the island is very beautiful, with wild mountains and tropical forests. In the central part there are extensive prairies. In the west there are swelling hills and gentle valleys, with the royal palm the dominating tree. The valley of the Yumurí, near Matanzas, a small circular basin crossed by a river that issues through a glen to the sea, is perhaps the most beautiful in Cuba.

A very peculiar feature of Cuba is the abundance of caverns in the limestone deposits that underlie much of the island’s surface. The caves of Cotilla near Havana, of Bellamar near Matanzas, of Monte Libano near Guantánamo, and those of San Juan de los Remedios, are the best known, but there are scores of others. Many streams are “disappearing,” part of their course being through underground tunnels. Thus the Rio San Antonio suddenly disappears near San Antonio de los Baños; the cascades of the Jatibónico del Norte disappear and reappear in a surprising manner; the Moa cascade (near Guantánamo) drops 300 ft. into a cavern and its waters later reissue from the earth; the Jojo river disappears in a great “sink” and later issues with violent current at the edge of the sea. The springs of fresh water that bubble up among the keys of the S. coast are also supposedly the outlets of underground streams.

The number of rivers is very great, but almost without exception their courses are normal to the coast, and they are so short as to be of but slight importance. The Cauto river in Oriente province is exceptional; it is 250 m. long, and navigable by small vessels for about 75 m. Inside the bar at its mouth (formed by a storm in 1616) ships of 200 tons can still ascend to Cauto. In Camagüey province the Jatibónico del Sur; in Oriente the Salado, a branch of the Cauto; in Santa Clara the Sagua la Grande (which is navigable for some 20 m. and has an important traffic), and the Damuji; in Matanzas, the Canimar; and in Pinar del Rio the Cuyaguateje, are important streams. The water-parting in the four central provinces is very indefinite. There are few river valleys that are noteworthy—those of the Yumurí, the Trinidad and the Güines. At Guantánamo and Trinidad are other valleys, and between Mariel and Havana is the fine valley of Ariguanabo. Of lakes, there are a few on the coast, and a very few in the mountains. The finest is Lake Ariguanabo, near Havana, 6 sq. m. in area. Of the almost innumerable river cascades, those of the Sierra Maestra Mountains, and in particular the Moa cascade, have already been mentioned. The Guamá cascade in Oriente province and the Hanabanilla Fall near Cienfuegos (each more than 300 ft. high), the Rosario Fall in Pinar del Rio, and the Almendares cascade near Havana, may also be mentioned.

Geology.—The foundation of the island is formed of metamorphic and igneous rocks, which appear in the Sierra Maestra and are exposed in other parts of the island wherever the comparatively thin covering of later beds has been worn away. A more or less continuous band of serpentine belonging to this series forms the principal watershed, although it nowhere rises to any great height. It is in this band that the greater part of the mineral wealth of Cuba is situated. These ancient rocks have hitherto yielded no fossils and their age is therefore uncertain, but they are probably pre-Cretaceous at least. Fossiliferous Cretaceous limestones containingRudisteshave been found in several parts of the island (Santiago de los Baños, Santa Clara province, &c.). At the base there is often an arkose, composed largely of fragments of serpentine and granite derived from the ancient floor. At Esperanza and other places in the Santa Clara province, bituminous plant-bearing beds occur beneath the Tertiary limestones, and at Baracoa a Radiolarian earth occupies a similar position. The latter, like the similar deposits in other West Indian islands, is probably of Oligocene age. It is the Tertiary limestones which form the predominant feature in the geology of Cuba. Although they do not exceed 1000 ft. in thickness, they probably at one time covered the whole island except the summits of the Sierra Maestra, where they have been observed, resting upon the older rocks, up to a height of 2300 ft. They contain corals, but are not coral reefs. The shells which have been found in them indicate that they belong for the most part to the Oligocene period. They are frequently very much disturbed and often strongly folded. Around the coast there is a raised shelf of limestone which was undoubtedly a coral reef. But it is of recent date and does not attain an elevation of more than 40 or 50 ft.Minerals are fairly abundant in number, but few are present in sufficient quantity to be industrially important. Traditions of gold and silver, dating from the time of the Spanish conquest, still endure, but these metals are in fact extremely rare. Oriente province is distinctively the mineral province of the island. Large copper deposits of peculiar richness occur here in the Sierra de Cobre, near the city of Santiago; and both iron and manganese are abundant. Besides the deposits in Oriente province, iron is known to exist in considerable amount in Camagüey and Santa Clara, and copper in Camagüey and Pinar del Rio provinces. The iron ores mined at Daiquiri near Santiago are mainly rich hematites running above 60% of iron, with very little sulphur or phosphorus admixture. The copper deposits are mainly in well-marked fracture planes in serpentine; the ore is pyrrhotite, with or without chalcopyrite. Manganese occurs especially along the coast between Santiago and Manzanillo; the best ores run above 50%. Chromium and a number of other rare minerals are known to exist, but probably not in commercially available quantities. Bituminous products of every grade, from clear translucent oils resembling petroleum and refined naphtha, to lignite-like substances, occur in all parts of the island. Much of the bituminous deposits is on the dividing line between asphalt and coal. There is an endless amount of stone, very little of which is hard enough to be good for building material, the greatest part being a soft coralline limestone. The best buildings in Havana are constructed of a very rich white limestone, soft and readily worked when fresh, but hardening and slightly darkening with age. There are extensive and valuable deposits of beautiful marbles in the Isle of Pines, and lesser ones near Santiago. The Organ Mountains contain a hard blue limestone; and sandstones occur on the N. coast of Pinar del Rio province. Clays of all qualities and colours abound. Mineral waters, though not yet important in trade, are extremely abundant, and a score of places in Cuba and the Isle of Pines are already known as health resorts. Those near San Diego, Guanabacoa and Santa Maria del Rosario (near Havana) and Madruga (near Güines) are the best known.The soil of the island is almost wholly of modern formation, mainly alluvial, with superficial limestones as another prominent feature. In the original formation of the island volcanic disturbances and coral growth played some part; but there are only very slight superficial evidences in the island of former volcanic activity. Noteworthy earthquakes are rare. They have been most common in Oriente province. Those of 1776, 1842 and 1852 were particularly destructive, and of earlier ones those of 1551 and 1624 at Bayamo and of 1578 and 1678 at Santiago. Every year there are seismic disturbances, and though Santiago is the point of most frequent visitation, they occur in all parts of the island, in 1880 affecting the entire western end. Notable seismic disturbances in Cuba have coincided with similar activity in Central America so often as to make some connexion apparent.Flora.—The tropical heat and humidity of Cuba make possible a flora of splendid richness. All the characteristic species of the West Indies, the Central American and Mexican and southern Florida seaboard, and nearly all the large trees of the Mexican tropic belt, are embraced in it. As many as 3350 native flowering species were catalogued in 1876. The total number of species of the island flora was estimated in 1892 by a writer in theRevista Cubana(vol. xv. pp. 5-16) to be between 5000 and 6000, but hardly one-third of this number had then been gathered into a herbarium, and all parts of the island had not then been explored. It was estimated officially in 1904 that the wooded lands of the island comprised 3,628,434 acres, of which one-third were in Oriente province, another third in Camagüey, and hardly any in Havana province. Much of this area is of primeval forest; somewhat more than a third of the total, belonging to the government, was opened to sale (and speculative exspoliation) in 1904. The woods are so dense over large districts as to be impenetrable, except by cutting a path foot by foot through the close network of vines and undergrowth. The jagüey (Ficussp.), which stifles in its giant coils the greatest trees of the forest, and the copei (Clusia rosea) are remarkable parasitic lianas. Of the palm there are more than thirty species. The royal palm is the most characteristic tree of Cuba. It attains a height of from 50 to 75 ft., and sometimes of more than 100 ft. Alone, or in groups, or in long aisles, towering above the plantations or its fellow trees of the forest, its beautiful crest dominates every landscape. Every portion, from its roots to its leaves, serves some useful purpose. From it the native draws lumber for his hut, utensils for his kitchen, thatch for his roof, medicines, preserved delicacies, and a long list of other articles. The corojo palm (Cocos crispa) rivals the royal palm in beauty and utility; oil, sugar, drink and wood are derived from it. The coco palm (Cocos nucifera) is also put to varied uses. The mango is planted with the royal palm along the avenues of the plantations. The beautiful ceiba (Bombax ceibaL.,Ceiba pentandra) or silk cotton tree is the giant of the Cuban forests; it often grows to a height of 100 to 150 ft. with enormous girth. The royal piñon (Erythrinavelatina) is remarkable for the magnificent purple flowers that cover it. The tamarind and banyan are also noteworthy. Utilitarian trees and plants are legion. There are at least forty choice cabinet and building woods. Of these, ebonies, mahogany (for the bird’s-eye variety such enormous prices are paid as $1200 to $1800 per thousand board-feet), cullá (or cuyá,Bumelia retusa), cocullo (cocuyo,Bumelia nigra), ocuje (Callophyllum viticifolia,Ornitrophis occidentalis,O. cominia), jigüe (jique,Lysiloma sabicu), mahagua (Hibiscus tiliaceus), granadillo (Brya ebenus), icaquillo (Licania incania) and agua-baría (Cordia gerascanthes) are perhaps the most beautiful. Other woods, beautiful and precious, include guayacan (Guaiacum sanctum), baría (varía,Cordia gerascanthoides)—the fragrant, hard-wood Spanish elm—the quiebra-hacha (Copaifera hymenofolia), which three are of wonderful lasting qualities; the jiquí (Malpighia obovata), acana (Achras disecta,Bassia albescens), caigarán (or caguairan,Hymenaea floribunda), and the dagame (Calicophyllum candidissimum), which four, like the cullá, are all wonderfully resistant to humidity; the caimatillo (Chrysophyllum oliviforme), the yaya (or yayajabico, yayabito:Erythalis fructicosa,Bocagea virgata,Guateria virgata,Asimina Blaini), a magnificent construction wood; the maboa (Cameraria latifolia) and the jocuma (jocum:Sideroxylon mastichodendron,Bumelia saticifolia), all of individual beauties and qualities. Many species are rich in gums and resins; the calambac, mastic, copal, cedar, &c. Many others are oleaginous, among them, peanuts, sun-flowers, the bene seed (sesame), corozo, almond and palmachristi. Others (in addition to some already mentioned) are medicinal; as the palms, calabash, manchineel, pepper, fustic and a long list of cathartics, caustics, emetics, astringents, febrifuges, vermifuges, diuretics and tonics. Then, too, there are various dyewoods; rosewood, logwood (or campeachy wood), indigo, manajú (Garcinia Morella), Brazil-wood and saffron. Textile plants are extremely common. The majagua tree grows as high as 40 ft.; from its bark is made cordage of the finest quality, which is scarcely affected by the atmosphere. Strong, fine, glossy fibres are yielded by the exotic ramie (Boehmeria nivea), whose fibre, like that of the majagua, is almost incorruptible; by the maya or rat-pineapple (Bromelia Pinguin), and by the daquilla (or daiguiya—Lagetta lintearia,L. valenzuelana), which like the maya yields a brilliant, flexible product like silk; stronger cordage by the corojo palms, and various henequén plants, native and exotic (especiallyAgave americana,A. Cubensis); and various plantains, the exoticSansevieria guineensis, okra, jute,Laportea, various lianas, and a great variety of reeds, supply varied textile materials of the best quality. The yucca is a source of starch. For building and miscellaneous purposes, in addition to the rare woods above named, there are cedars (used in great quantities for cigar boxes); the pine, found only in the W., where it gives its name to the Isle of Pines and the province of Pinar del Rio; various palms; oaks of varying hardness and colour, &c. The number of alimentary plants is extremely great. Among economic plants should be mentioned the coffee, cacao, citron, cinnamon, cocoanut and rubber tree. Wheat, Indian corn and many vegetables, especially tuberous, are particularly important. Plantain occurs in several varieties; it is in part a cheap and healthful substitute for bread, which is also made from the bitter cassava, after the poison is extracted. The sweet cassava yields tapioca. Bread-trees are fairly common, but are little cared for. White and sweet potatoes, yams, sweet and bitter yuccas, sago and okra, may also be mentioned.Fruits are varied and delicious. The pineapple is the most favoured by Cubans. Four or five annual crops grow from one plant, but not more than three can be marketed, unless locally, as the product deteriorates. The better (“purple”) varieties are mainly consumed in the island, and the smaller and less juicy “white” varieties exported. The tamarind is everywhere. Bananas are grown particularly in the region about Nipe, Gibara and Baracoa, whence they are exported in large quantities, though there is a tendency to lessen their culture in these parts in favour of sugar. Mangoes, though exotic, are extremely common, and in the E. grow wild in the forests. They are the favourite fruit of the negroes. Oranges are little cultivated, although they offer apparently almost unlimited possibilities; their culture decreased steadily after 1880, but after about 1900 was again greatly extended. Lemons yield continuously through the year, but like oranges, not much has yet been done with them commercially. Pomegranates are as universally used in Cuba as apples in the United. States. Figs and grapes degenerate in Cuba. Dates grow better, but nothing has been done with them. The coco-nut palm is most abundant in the vicinity of Baracoa. Among the common fruits are various anonas—the custard apple (Anona cherimolia), sweet-sop (A. squamosa), sour-sop (A. muricata), mamón (A. reticulata), and others,—the star-apple (Chrysophyllum cainito,C. pomiferum), rose-apple (Eugenia jambos), pawpaw, the sapodilla (Sapota achras), the caniste (Sapota Elongata), jagua (Genipa americana), alligator pear (Persea gratissima), the yellow mammee (Mammea americana) and so-called “red mammee” (Lucuma mammosa) and limes.Fauna.—The fauna of Cuba, like the flora, is still imperfectly known. Collectively it shows long isolation from the other Antilles. Only two land mammals are known to be indigenous. One is the hutía (agouti) or Cuban rat, of which three species are known (Capromys Fournieri,C. melanurusandC. Poey). It lives in the most solitary woods, especially in the eastern hills. The other is a peculiar insectivore (Solenodon paradoxus), the only other representatives of whose family are found in Madagascar. Various animals, apparently indigenous, that are described by the early historians of the conquest, have disappeared. An Antillean rabbit is very abundant. Bats in prodigious numbers, and some of them of extraordinary size, inhabit the many caves of the island; more than twenty species are known. Rats and mice, especially the guayabita (Mus musculus), an extremely destructive rodent, are very abundant. The manatee, or sea-cow, frequents the mouths of rivers, the sargasso drifts, and the regions of submarine fresh-water springs off the coast. Horses, asses, cows, deer, sheep, goats, swine, cats and dogs were introduced by the early Spaniards. The last three are common in a wild state. Deer are not native, and are very rare; a few live in the swamps.Of birds there are more than 200 indigenous species, it is said, and migratory species are also numerous. Waders are represented by more than fifty species. Vultures are represented by only one species, the turkey buzzard, which is the universal scavenger of the fields, and until recent years even of the cities, and has always been protected by custom and the Laws of the Indies. Falcons are represented by a score of species, at least, several of them nocturnal. Kestrels are common. The gallinaceous order is rich inColumbidae. Trumpeters are notably represented, and climbers still more so. Among the latter are species of curious habits and remarkable colouring. Woodpeckers (Coloptes auratus), macaws, parrakeets and other small parrots, and trogons, these last of beautifully resplendent plumage, deserve particular mention. The Cuban mocking-bird is a wonderful songster. Of humming-birds there are said to be sixty species, probably only one indigenous. Of the other birds mere mention may be made of the wild pigeon, raven, indigo-bird, English lady-bird and linnet.Reptiles are numerous. Many tortoises are notable. The crocodile and cayman occur in the swampy littoral of the south. Of lizards the iguana (Cyclura caudata) is noteworthy. Chameleons are common. Snakes are not numerous, and it is said that none is poisonous or vicious. There is one enormous boa, the maja (Epicrates angulifer), which feeds on pigs, goats and the like, but does not molest man.Fishes are present in even greater variety than birds. Felipa Poey, in hisIctiologia Cubana, listed 782 species of fish and crustaceans, of which 105 were doubtful; but more than one-half of the remainder were first described by Poey. The fish of Cuban waters are remarkable for their metallic colourings. The largest species are found off the northern coast. Food fishes are relatively not abundant, presumably because the deep sea escarpments of the N. are unfavourable to their life. Shell fish are unimportant. Two species of blind fish, of extreme scientific interest, are found in the caves of the island. Of the “percoideos” there are many genera. Among the most important are the robalo (Labrax), an exquisite food fish, the tunny, eel, Spanish sardine and mangua. Of the sharks the genusSqualusis represented by individuals that grow to a length of 26 to 30 ft. The hammer-head attains a weight at times of 600 ℔. The saw-fish is common. Of fresh-water fish the lisa, dogro, guayácón and viajocos (Chromis fuscomaculatus) are possibly the most noteworthy.Molluscs are extraordinarily numerous; and many, both of water and land, are rarities among their kind for size and richness of colour. Of crustaceans, land-crabs are remarkable for size and number. Arachnids are prodigiously numerous. Insect life is abundant and beautiful. The bite of the scorpion and of the numerous spiders produces no serious effects. The nigua, the Cuban jigger, is a pest of serious consequence, and the mal de nigua (jigger sickness) sometimes causes the death of lower animals and men. Sand-flies and biting gnats are lesser nuisances. Lepidoptera are very brilliant in colouring. The cucujo or Cuban firefly (Pyrophorus noctilucus) gives out so strong a light that a few of them serve effectively as a lantern. TheStegomyiamosquito is the agent of yellow fever inoculation. Sponges grow in great variety.

Minerals are fairly abundant in number, but few are present in sufficient quantity to be industrially important. Traditions of gold and silver, dating from the time of the Spanish conquest, still endure, but these metals are in fact extremely rare. Oriente province is distinctively the mineral province of the island. Large copper deposits of peculiar richness occur here in the Sierra de Cobre, near the city of Santiago; and both iron and manganese are abundant. Besides the deposits in Oriente province, iron is known to exist in considerable amount in Camagüey and Santa Clara, and copper in Camagüey and Pinar del Rio provinces. The iron ores mined at Daiquiri near Santiago are mainly rich hematites running above 60% of iron, with very little sulphur or phosphorus admixture. The copper deposits are mainly in well-marked fracture planes in serpentine; the ore is pyrrhotite, with or without chalcopyrite. Manganese occurs especially along the coast between Santiago and Manzanillo; the best ores run above 50%. Chromium and a number of other rare minerals are known to exist, but probably not in commercially available quantities. Bituminous products of every grade, from clear translucent oils resembling petroleum and refined naphtha, to lignite-like substances, occur in all parts of the island. Much of the bituminous deposits is on the dividing line between asphalt and coal. There is an endless amount of stone, very little of which is hard enough to be good for building material, the greatest part being a soft coralline limestone. The best buildings in Havana are constructed of a very rich white limestone, soft and readily worked when fresh, but hardening and slightly darkening with age. There are extensive and valuable deposits of beautiful marbles in the Isle of Pines, and lesser ones near Santiago. The Organ Mountains contain a hard blue limestone; and sandstones occur on the N. coast of Pinar del Rio province. Clays of all qualities and colours abound. Mineral waters, though not yet important in trade, are extremely abundant, and a score of places in Cuba and the Isle of Pines are already known as health resorts. Those near San Diego, Guanabacoa and Santa Maria del Rosario (near Havana) and Madruga (near Güines) are the best known.

The soil of the island is almost wholly of modern formation, mainly alluvial, with superficial limestones as another prominent feature. In the original formation of the island volcanic disturbances and coral growth played some part; but there are only very slight superficial evidences in the island of former volcanic activity. Noteworthy earthquakes are rare. They have been most common in Oriente province. Those of 1776, 1842 and 1852 were particularly destructive, and of earlier ones those of 1551 and 1624 at Bayamo and of 1578 and 1678 at Santiago. Every year there are seismic disturbances, and though Santiago is the point of most frequent visitation, they occur in all parts of the island, in 1880 affecting the entire western end. Notable seismic disturbances in Cuba have coincided with similar activity in Central America so often as to make some connexion apparent.

Flora.—The tropical heat and humidity of Cuba make possible a flora of splendid richness. All the characteristic species of the West Indies, the Central American and Mexican and southern Florida seaboard, and nearly all the large trees of the Mexican tropic belt, are embraced in it. As many as 3350 native flowering species were catalogued in 1876. The total number of species of the island flora was estimated in 1892 by a writer in theRevista Cubana(vol. xv. pp. 5-16) to be between 5000 and 6000, but hardly one-third of this number had then been gathered into a herbarium, and all parts of the island had not then been explored. It was estimated officially in 1904 that the wooded lands of the island comprised 3,628,434 acres, of which one-third were in Oriente province, another third in Camagüey, and hardly any in Havana province. Much of this area is of primeval forest; somewhat more than a third of the total, belonging to the government, was opened to sale (and speculative exspoliation) in 1904. The woods are so dense over large districts as to be impenetrable, except by cutting a path foot by foot through the close network of vines and undergrowth. The jagüey (Ficussp.), which stifles in its giant coils the greatest trees of the forest, and the copei (Clusia rosea) are remarkable parasitic lianas. Of the palm there are more than thirty species. The royal palm is the most characteristic tree of Cuba. It attains a height of from 50 to 75 ft., and sometimes of more than 100 ft. Alone, or in groups, or in long aisles, towering above the plantations or its fellow trees of the forest, its beautiful crest dominates every landscape. Every portion, from its roots to its leaves, serves some useful purpose. From it the native draws lumber for his hut, utensils for his kitchen, thatch for his roof, medicines, preserved delicacies, and a long list of other articles. The corojo palm (Cocos crispa) rivals the royal palm in beauty and utility; oil, sugar, drink and wood are derived from it. The coco palm (Cocos nucifera) is also put to varied uses. The mango is planted with the royal palm along the avenues of the plantations. The beautiful ceiba (Bombax ceibaL.,Ceiba pentandra) or silk cotton tree is the giant of the Cuban forests; it often grows to a height of 100 to 150 ft. with enormous girth. The royal piñon (Erythrinavelatina) is remarkable for the magnificent purple flowers that cover it. The tamarind and banyan are also noteworthy. Utilitarian trees and plants are legion. There are at least forty choice cabinet and building woods. Of these, ebonies, mahogany (for the bird’s-eye variety such enormous prices are paid as $1200 to $1800 per thousand board-feet), cullá (or cuyá,Bumelia retusa), cocullo (cocuyo,Bumelia nigra), ocuje (Callophyllum viticifolia,Ornitrophis occidentalis,O. cominia), jigüe (jique,Lysiloma sabicu), mahagua (Hibiscus tiliaceus), granadillo (Brya ebenus), icaquillo (Licania incania) and agua-baría (Cordia gerascanthes) are perhaps the most beautiful. Other woods, beautiful and precious, include guayacan (Guaiacum sanctum), baría (varía,Cordia gerascanthoides)—the fragrant, hard-wood Spanish elm—the quiebra-hacha (Copaifera hymenofolia), which three are of wonderful lasting qualities; the jiquí (Malpighia obovata), acana (Achras disecta,Bassia albescens), caigarán (or caguairan,Hymenaea floribunda), and the dagame (Calicophyllum candidissimum), which four, like the cullá, are all wonderfully resistant to humidity; the caimatillo (Chrysophyllum oliviforme), the yaya (or yayajabico, yayabito:Erythalis fructicosa,Bocagea virgata,Guateria virgata,Asimina Blaini), a magnificent construction wood; the maboa (Cameraria latifolia) and the jocuma (jocum:Sideroxylon mastichodendron,Bumelia saticifolia), all of individual beauties and qualities. Many species are rich in gums and resins; the calambac, mastic, copal, cedar, &c. Many others are oleaginous, among them, peanuts, sun-flowers, the bene seed (sesame), corozo, almond and palmachristi. Others (in addition to some already mentioned) are medicinal; as the palms, calabash, manchineel, pepper, fustic and a long list of cathartics, caustics, emetics, astringents, febrifuges, vermifuges, diuretics and tonics. Then, too, there are various dyewoods; rosewood, logwood (or campeachy wood), indigo, manajú (Garcinia Morella), Brazil-wood and saffron. Textile plants are extremely common. The majagua tree grows as high as 40 ft.; from its bark is made cordage of the finest quality, which is scarcely affected by the atmosphere. Strong, fine, glossy fibres are yielded by the exotic ramie (Boehmeria nivea), whose fibre, like that of the majagua, is almost incorruptible; by the maya or rat-pineapple (Bromelia Pinguin), and by the daquilla (or daiguiya—Lagetta lintearia,L. valenzuelana), which like the maya yields a brilliant, flexible product like silk; stronger cordage by the corojo palms, and various henequén plants, native and exotic (especiallyAgave americana,A. Cubensis); and various plantains, the exoticSansevieria guineensis, okra, jute,Laportea, various lianas, and a great variety of reeds, supply varied textile materials of the best quality. The yucca is a source of starch. For building and miscellaneous purposes, in addition to the rare woods above named, there are cedars (used in great quantities for cigar boxes); the pine, found only in the W., where it gives its name to the Isle of Pines and the province of Pinar del Rio; various palms; oaks of varying hardness and colour, &c. The number of alimentary plants is extremely great. Among economic plants should be mentioned the coffee, cacao, citron, cinnamon, cocoanut and rubber tree. Wheat, Indian corn and many vegetables, especially tuberous, are particularly important. Plantain occurs in several varieties; it is in part a cheap and healthful substitute for bread, which is also made from the bitter cassava, after the poison is extracted. The sweet cassava yields tapioca. Bread-trees are fairly common, but are little cared for. White and sweet potatoes, yams, sweet and bitter yuccas, sago and okra, may also be mentioned.

Fruits are varied and delicious. The pineapple is the most favoured by Cubans. Four or five annual crops grow from one plant, but not more than three can be marketed, unless locally, as the product deteriorates. The better (“purple”) varieties are mainly consumed in the island, and the smaller and less juicy “white” varieties exported. The tamarind is everywhere. Bananas are grown particularly in the region about Nipe, Gibara and Baracoa, whence they are exported in large quantities, though there is a tendency to lessen their culture in these parts in favour of sugar. Mangoes, though exotic, are extremely common, and in the E. grow wild in the forests. They are the favourite fruit of the negroes. Oranges are little cultivated, although they offer apparently almost unlimited possibilities; their culture decreased steadily after 1880, but after about 1900 was again greatly extended. Lemons yield continuously through the year, but like oranges, not much has yet been done with them commercially. Pomegranates are as universally used in Cuba as apples in the United. States. Figs and grapes degenerate in Cuba. Dates grow better, but nothing has been done with them. The coco-nut palm is most abundant in the vicinity of Baracoa. Among the common fruits are various anonas—the custard apple (Anona cherimolia), sweet-sop (A. squamosa), sour-sop (A. muricata), mamón (A. reticulata), and others,—the star-apple (Chrysophyllum cainito,C. pomiferum), rose-apple (Eugenia jambos), pawpaw, the sapodilla (Sapota achras), the caniste (Sapota Elongata), jagua (Genipa americana), alligator pear (Persea gratissima), the yellow mammee (Mammea americana) and so-called “red mammee” (Lucuma mammosa) and limes.

Fauna.—The fauna of Cuba, like the flora, is still imperfectly known. Collectively it shows long isolation from the other Antilles. Only two land mammals are known to be indigenous. One is the hutía (agouti) or Cuban rat, of which three species are known (Capromys Fournieri,C. melanurusandC. Poey). It lives in the most solitary woods, especially in the eastern hills. The other is a peculiar insectivore (Solenodon paradoxus), the only other representatives of whose family are found in Madagascar. Various animals, apparently indigenous, that are described by the early historians of the conquest, have disappeared. An Antillean rabbit is very abundant. Bats in prodigious numbers, and some of them of extraordinary size, inhabit the many caves of the island; more than twenty species are known. Rats and mice, especially the guayabita (Mus musculus), an extremely destructive rodent, are very abundant. The manatee, or sea-cow, frequents the mouths of rivers, the sargasso drifts, and the regions of submarine fresh-water springs off the coast. Horses, asses, cows, deer, sheep, goats, swine, cats and dogs were introduced by the early Spaniards. The last three are common in a wild state. Deer are not native, and are very rare; a few live in the swamps.

Of birds there are more than 200 indigenous species, it is said, and migratory species are also numerous. Waders are represented by more than fifty species. Vultures are represented by only one species, the turkey buzzard, which is the universal scavenger of the fields, and until recent years even of the cities, and has always been protected by custom and the Laws of the Indies. Falcons are represented by a score of species, at least, several of them nocturnal. Kestrels are common. The gallinaceous order is rich inColumbidae. Trumpeters are notably represented, and climbers still more so. Among the latter are species of curious habits and remarkable colouring. Woodpeckers (Coloptes auratus), macaws, parrakeets and other small parrots, and trogons, these last of beautifully resplendent plumage, deserve particular mention. The Cuban mocking-bird is a wonderful songster. Of humming-birds there are said to be sixty species, probably only one indigenous. Of the other birds mere mention may be made of the wild pigeon, raven, indigo-bird, English lady-bird and linnet.

Reptiles are numerous. Many tortoises are notable. The crocodile and cayman occur in the swampy littoral of the south. Of lizards the iguana (Cyclura caudata) is noteworthy. Chameleons are common. Snakes are not numerous, and it is said that none is poisonous or vicious. There is one enormous boa, the maja (Epicrates angulifer), which feeds on pigs, goats and the like, but does not molest man.

Fishes are present in even greater variety than birds. Felipa Poey, in hisIctiologia Cubana, listed 782 species of fish and crustaceans, of which 105 were doubtful; but more than one-half of the remainder were first described by Poey. The fish of Cuban waters are remarkable for their metallic colourings. The largest species are found off the northern coast. Food fishes are relatively not abundant, presumably because the deep sea escarpments of the N. are unfavourable to their life. Shell fish are unimportant. Two species of blind fish, of extreme scientific interest, are found in the caves of the island. Of the “percoideos” there are many genera. Among the most important are the robalo (Labrax), an exquisite food fish, the tunny, eel, Spanish sardine and mangua. Of the sharks the genusSqualusis represented by individuals that grow to a length of 26 to 30 ft. The hammer-head attains a weight at times of 600 ℔. The saw-fish is common. Of fresh-water fish the lisa, dogro, guayácón and viajocos (Chromis fuscomaculatus) are possibly the most noteworthy.

Molluscs are extraordinarily numerous; and many, both of water and land, are rarities among their kind for size and richness of colour. Of crustaceans, land-crabs are remarkable for size and number. Arachnids are prodigiously numerous. Insect life is abundant and beautiful. The bite of the scorpion and of the numerous spiders produces no serious effects. The nigua, the Cuban jigger, is a pest of serious consequence, and the mal de nigua (jigger sickness) sometimes causes the death of lower animals and men. Sand-flies and biting gnats are lesser nuisances. Lepidoptera are very brilliant in colouring. The cucujo or Cuban firefly (Pyrophorus noctilucus) gives out so strong a light that a few of them serve effectively as a lantern. TheStegomyiamosquito is the agent of yellow fever inoculation. Sponges grow in great variety.

Climate.—The climate of Cuba is tropical and distinctively insular in characteristics of humidity, equability and high mean temperature. There are two distinct seasons: a “dry” season from November to April, and a hotter, “wet” season. About two-thirds of the total precipitation falls in the latter. Droughts, extensive in area and in duration, are by no means uncommon. At Havana the mean temperature is about 76° F., with extreme monthly oscillations ranging on the average from 6° to 12° F. for different months, and with a range between the means of the coldest and warmest months of 10° (70° to 80°); temperatures below 50° or above 90° being rare. The mean rainfall at Havana is about 40.6 in. (sometimes over 80), and the mean absolute humidity of different months ranges from 70 to 80%. These figures represent fairly well the conditions of much of the northern coast. In the N.E. the rainfall is much greater. The equability of heat throughout the day is masked and relieved by the afternoon sea breezes. The trades are steady through the year, andin the dry season the western part of the island enjoys cool “northers.” Despite this the interior is somewhat cooler than the coast, and in the uplands frost is not uncommon. The southern littoral is also (except in sheltered points such as Santiago, which is one of the hottest cities of the island) somewhat cooler than the northern.

More than eight or ten years rarely pass without tornadoes or hurricanes of local severity at least. Notably destructive ones occurred in 1768, 1774, 1842, 1844, 1846, 1865, 1870, 1876, 1885 and 1894. Those of 1842 and 1844 caused extreme distress in the island. In 1846, 300 vessels and 2000 houses were destroyed at Havana; in 1896 the banana groves of the N.E. coast were ruined and the banana industry prostrated; and in 1906 Havana suffered damage. The autumn months, particularly October and November, are those in which such storms most frequently occur.

Health.—Convincing evidence is offered by the qualities of the Spanish race in Cuba that white men of temperate lands can be perfectly acclimatized in this tropical island. As for diseases, some common to Cuba and Europe are more frequent or severe in the island, others rarer or milder. There are the usual malarial, bilious and intermittent fevers, and liver, stomach and intestinal complaints prevalent in tropical countries; but unhygienic living is, in Cuba as elsewhere, mainly responsible for their existence. Yellow fever (which first appeared in Cuba in 1647) was long the only epidemic disease, Havana being an endemic focus. Aside from the recurrent loss of life, the pecuniary loss from such epidemics was enormous, and the interference with commerce and social intercourse with other countries extremely vexatious. The Cuban coast was uninterruptedly full of infection, and the danger of an outbreak in each year was never absent, until the work of the United States army in 1901-1902 conclusively proved that this disease, though ineradicable by the most extreme sanitary measures, based on the accepted theory of its origin as a filth-disease, could be eradicated entirely by removing the possibility of inoculation by theStegomyiamosquito. Since then yellow fever has ceased to be a scourge in Cuba. Small-pox was the cause of a greater mortality than yellow fever even before the means of combating the latter had been ascertained. The remarkable sanitary work begun during the American occupation and continued by the republic of Cuba, has shown that the ravages of this and other diseases can be greatly diminished. Leprosy is rather common, but seemingly only slightly contagious. Consumption is very prevalent.

Agriculture.—Soils are of four classes: calcareous-ferruginous, alluvial, argillous and silicious. Calcareous lands are predominant, especially in the uplands. Deep residual clay soils derived from underlying limestones, and coloured red or black according to the predominance of oxides of iron or vegetable detritus, characterize the plains. A red-black soil known as “mulatto” or tawny is perhaps the best fitted for general cultivation. Tobacco is most generally cultivated on loose red soils, which are rich in clays and silicates; and sugar-cane preferably on the black and mulatto soils; but in general, contrary to prevalent suppositions, colour is no test of quality and not a very valuable guide in the setting of crops. Almost without exception the lands throughout the island are of extreme fertility. The lowlands about Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Mariel and Matanzas are noted for their richness. The census of 1899 showed that farm lands occupied three-tenths of the total area; the cultivated area being one-tenth of the farms or 3% of the whole. At the end of 1905 it was officially estimated that 16% was in cultivation. In 1902 it was officially estimated that the public land available for permanent agrarian cultivation, including forest lands, was only 186,967 hectares (416,995 acres), almost wholly in the province of Oriente. The average size of a farm in 1899 was 143 acres. More than 85% of all cultivated lands were then occupied by whites; and somewhat more than one-half (56.6%) of all occupiers were renters. Holdings of more than 32 acres constituted only 7% of the total. As regards crops, 47% of the cultivated area was given over to sugar, 11% to sweet potatoes, 9% to tobacco and almost 9% to bananas. But owing to the disturbed conditions created by the war it is probable that these figures by no means represent normal conditions. The actual sugar crop of 1899-1900, for example, was not a quarter of that of 1894. With the establishment of peace in 1898 and the influx of American and other capital and of a heavy immigration, great changes took place in agriculture as in other industrial conditions.

Sugar has been the dominant crop since the end of the 18th century. Before the Civil War of 1895-1898 the capital invested in sugar estates was greater by half than that represented by tobacco and coffee plantations, live-stockSugar.ranches and other farms. Since that time fruit and live-stock interests have increased. The dependence of the island on one crop has been an artificial economic condition often of grave momentary danger to prosperity; but generally speaking, the progress of the industry has been steady. The competition of the sugar-beet has been felt severely. During and after the war of 1868-1878, when many Cuban estates were confiscated, many families emigrated, and many others were ruined, the ownership of plantations largely passed from the hands of Cubans to Spaniards. Under the conditions of free labour, the development of railways abroad, the improvement of machinery both in cane and beet producing countries, the general competition of the beet, and the fall of prices, it was impossible for the Cuban industry to survive without radical betterment of methods. About 1885 began an immense development of centralization (the tendency having been evident many years before this). Plantations have increased greatly in size (and also diminished in number), greater capital is involved, bagasse furnaces have been introduced, double grinding mills have increased by more than a half the yield of juice from a given weight of cane, and extractive operations instead of being carried on on all plantations have been (since 1880) concentrated in comparatively few “centrals” (168 in Feb. 1908). Three-fourths of all are in the jurisdictions of Cienfuegos, Cárdenas, Havana, Matanzas and Sagua la Grande, which are the great sugar centres of the island (three-fourths of the crop coming from Matanzas and Santa Clara provinces). Caibarién, Guantánamo and Manzanillo are next in importance. A comparatively low cost of labour, the fact that labour is not, as in the days of slavery, that of unintelligent blacks but of intelligent free labourers, the centralized organization and modern methods that prevail on the plantations, the remarkable fertility of the soil (which yields 5 or 6 crops on good soil and with good management, without replanting), and the proximity of the United States, in whose markets Cuba disposes of almost all her crop, have long enabled her to distance her smaller West Indian rivals and to compete with the bounty-fed beet. The methods of cultivation, however, are still distinctly extensive, and the returns are much less than they would be (and in some other cane countries are) under more intensive and scientific methods of cultivation. Indeed, conditions were relatively primitive so late as 1880, if compared with those of other sugar-producing countries. More than four-fifths of the total area sown to cane in the island is in the three provinces of Santa Clara, Matanzas and Oriente (formerly Santiago), the former two representing two-thirds of the area and three-fourths of the crop. The majority of the sugar estates are of an area less than 3000 acres, and the most common area is between 1500 and 2000 acres; but the extremes range from a very small size to 60,000 acres. Only a part of the great estates is ever planted in any one season. The most profitable unit is calculated to be a daily consumption of 1500 tons of cane, or 150,000 in a grinding season of 100 days, which implies a feeding area not above 6000 acres. In the season of 1904-1905, which may be taken as typical, 179 estates, with a planted area of 431,056 acres, produced 11,576,137 tons of cane, and yielded—in addition to alcohol, brandy and molasses—1,089,814 tons of sugar. Of this amount 416,862 tons were produced by 24 estates yielding more than 11,000 tons each, including one (planting 28,050 acres) that yielded 33,609, and 4 others more than 22,000 tons each. The production of the island from 1850 to 1868 averaged 469,934 tons yearly, rising from 223,145 to 749,000; from 1869 to 1886(continuing high during the period of the Ten Years’ War), 632,003 tons; from 1887 to 1907—omitting the five years 1896-1900 when the industry was prostrated by war,—909,827 tons (and including the war period, 758,066); and in the six harvests of 1901-1906, 1,016,899 tons. Prior to 1902 the million mark, was reached only twice—in 1894 and 1895. Following the resuscitation of the industry after the last war, the island’s crop rose steadily from one-sixth to a full quarter of the total cane sugar output of the world, its share in the world’s product of sugar of all kinds ranging from a tenth to an eighth. Of this enormous output, from 98.3% upward went to the United States;1of whose total importation of all sugars and of cane sugar the proportion of Cuban cane—steadily rising—was respectively 49.8 and 53.7% in the seasons of 1900-1901 and 1904-1905.

If sugar is the island’s greatest crop, tobacco is her most renowned in the markets of the world. Three-fourths of the tobacco of Cuba comes from Pinar del Rio province; the rest mainly from the provinces of Havana andTobacco.Santa Clara,—the descriptionde partidobeing applied to the leaf not produced in Havana and Pinar del Rio provinces, and sometimes to all produced outside thevuelta abajo. This district, including the finest land, is on the southern slope of the Organ Mountains between the Honda river and Mantua; bananas are cultivated with the tobacco. “Vegas” (tobacco fields) of especially good repute are also found near Trinidad, Remedios, Yara, Mayarí and Vicana. The tobacco industry has been uniformly prosperous, except when crippled by the destruction of war in 1868-1878 and 1895-1898. Even in the time of slavery tobacco was generally a white-man’s crop; for it requires intelligent labour and intensive care. In recent years the growth of the leaf under cloth tents has greatly increased, as it has been abundantly proved that the product thus secured is much more valuable—lighter in colour and weight, finer in texture, with an increased proportion of wrapper leaves, and more uniform qualities, and with lesser amounts of cellulose, nicotine, gums and resins. In these respects the finest Cuban tobacco crops, produced in the sun, hardly rival the finest Sumatra product; but produced under cheese-cloth they do. “Cuban tobacco” does not mean to-day, as a commercial fact, what the words imply; for the originalNicotiana Tabacum, varietyhavanensis, can probably be found pure to-day only in out-of-the-way corners of Pinar del Rio. After the Ten Year’s War seed of Mexican and United States tobaccos was in great demand to re-seed the ruined vegas, and was introduced in great quantities; and although by a later law the destruction of these exotic species was ordered, that destruction was in fact quite impossible. “Lusty growers and coarser than the genuine old-time Cuban ... Mexican tobaccos (Nicotiana Tabacum, varietymacrophyllum) are to-day predominant in a large part of Cuban vegas.... Ordinary commercial Cuban seed of to-day is largely, and often altogether, Mexican tobacco.” Though improved in the Cuban environment, the foreign tobaccos introduced after the Ten Years’ War did not lose their exotic character, but prevailed over the indigenous forms: “Tobaccos with exactly the character of the introduced types are now the prevalent forms” (quotation from Bulletin of theEstación Central Agronómica, Feb. 1908). In the markets of the world Cuban tobacco has always suffered less competition than Cuban sugar, and still less has been done than in the case of sugar cane in the study of methods of cultivation, which in several respects are far behind those of other tobacco-growing countries. The crop of 1907 was 201,512 bales (109,562,400 ℔ Sp.).

Coffee-raising was once a flourishing and very promising industry. It first attained prominence with the settlement in eastern Cuba, late in the 18th century, of French refugee immigrants from San Domingo. Some “cafetales”Coffee.were established by the newcomers near Havana, but the industry has always been almost exclusively one of Oriente province; with Santa Clara as a much smaller producer. Before the war of 1868-1878 the production amounted to about 25,000,000 ℔ yearly. The war of 1895-1898 still further diminished the vitality of the industry. In 1907 the crop was 6,595,700 ℔. The berries are of fine quality, and despite the competition of Brazil there is no (agricultural) reason why the home market at least should not be supplied from Cuban estates.

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