nd courtyards are
flagged with stone, while the rooms are usually floored with tile
or marble. With rare exceptions the lowest floor is in contact with
the earth. Ventilation between the earth and floor is rarely seen in
Cuba. In Havana the average height of the ground floor is from 7 to
11 inches above the pavement, but in Havana, and more frequently in
other Cuban towns, one often encounters houses which are entered by
stepping down from the sidewalk, and some floors are even below the
level of the street. In Havana some of the floors, in Matanzas more,
in Cardenas and Cienfuegos many are of the bare earth itself, or of
planks raised only a few inches above the damp ground.

The narrow entrance about 400 yards in width and 1,200 in length,
opens into the irregular harbor, which has three chief coves or
indentations, termed "ensenadas." The extreme length of the harbor
from its sea entrance to the limit of the most distant ensenada is 3
miles, and its extreme breadth 1-1/2 miles; but within the entrance
the average length is only about 1, and the average breadth about
two-thirds of a mile. However, because of the irregularly projecting
points of land which form the ensenadas, there is no locality in the
harbor where a vessel can possibly anchor farther than 500 yards from
the shore. Its greatest depth is about 40 feet, but the anchorage
ground for vessels drawing 18 feet of water is very contracted, not
exceeding one-half the size of the harbor. The rise and fall of the
tide does not exceed 2 feet.

The Cuban city next in celebrity to Havana is Matanzas, and it is
one likely to become a favorite of Americans, as the country in
the vicinity is distinguished by beauty as well as remarkable for
fertility. Matanzas was first regularly settled in 1693. It is in the
province of Matanzas, 54 miles west of Havana, by the most direct
of the two railroads which unite these two cities, and is situated
on the western inland extremity of the bay of Matanzas, a harbor of
the first class. Matanzas is divided into three districts, viz, the
central district of Matanzas, which, about half a mile in width across
the center of population, lies between the two little rivers, San Juan
to the south, and the Yumuri to the north; the Pueblo Nuevo district,
south of the San Juan, and around the inland extremity of the harbor;
and the district of Versalles, north of the Yumuri, nearest to the
open sea, as also to the anchorage ground, and, san