t being the Zanja and to the east the Vento.

At Vento Springs is constructed a large stone basin, open at the
bottom, through which springs bubble. From this reservoir the new
aqueduct leads. It is an elliptical tunnel of brick, placed under
ground, and marked by turrets of brick and stone placed along its
course.

From the Vento Reservoir the new aqueduct crosses the low valley
south of Havana, following generally the Calzada de Vento, which
becomes, near the Cerro, the Calzada de Palatino, to a point on the
Western Railway marked 5 kilometers (about); hence the calzada and
the aqueduct closely follow the railway for about a mile, terminating
at a new reservoir.

The Vento water is the best thing Havana has, and indispensable. The
old sources of supply are intolerable. The main water supply is the
Zanja. Throughout the most of its course this river flows through
unprotected mud banks; the fluids of many houses, especially in the
Cerro ward which it skirts, drain into them; men, horses, and dogs
bathe in it; dead bodies have been seen floating in it, and in the
rainy season the water becomes very muddy. In fine, the Zanja in its
course receives all which a little brook traversing a village and
having houses and back yards on its banks would receive. The water can
not be pure, and to those who know the facts the idea of drinking it is
repulsive. This supply had long been insufficient to the growing city,
and in 1835 the well-protected and excellent aqueduct of Ferdinand
VII was completed. It taps the Almendares River a few hundred yards
above filters mentioned, hence carried by arches to the east El Cerro,
and for some distance nearly parallel to the Calzada del Cerro, but
finally intersecting this. These works are succeeded by the Famous
Vento. When Havana is fought for hereafter the fight will be at the
Vento Springs. This remark is not made in the military notes, but the
military men know it well. When General Miles expected to attack Havana
he procured all the accessible surveys and detail of information,
official and through special observation and personal knowledge
obtainable of the water works. Life could not be sustained many days
in the city of Havana without the water of the adorable Vento.

A special interest attaches to Havana, as it is to be a city under
the control of the United States. The surface soil consists for the
most part of a thin layer of red, yellow, or black earths. At varying
depths bene