owns and cities.

"The numerous good harbors have naturally dotted the seaboard with
cities and towns of greater or less commercial importance. San Juan,
Ponce, Mayaguez, Aguadilla, Arecibo and Fajardo all carry on extensive
trade. Intercourse between coast towns is readily had by water, but is
to be facilitated by a railroad around the island, of which 137 miles
have been built and 170 miles more projected. The public highways of
the island are in better condition than one might expect. According to
a recent report of United States Consul Stewart, of San Juan, there
are about one hundred and fifty miles of good road. The best of this
is the military highway connecting Ponce on the southern coast with
San Juan on the northern. This is a macadamized road, so excellently
built and so well kept up that a recent traveler in the island says a
bicycle corps could go over it without dismounting. Whether it is solid
enough to stand the transportation of artillery and heavy army trains
we shall soon know. Of telegraph lines Porto Rico has four hundred
and seventy miles, and two cables connect it with the outside world,
one running from Ponce and the other from San Juan."

Mr. Alfred Solomon, already quoted as an instructive contributor to
the Independent, writes:

"The population of Porto Rico, some 800,000, is essentially
agricultural. A varied climate, sultry in the lowlands, refreshing and
invigorating in the mountain ranges, makes possible the cultivation of
almost every variety of known crop--sugar, tobacco, coffee, annatto,
maze, cotton and ginger are extensively grown; but there are still
thousands of acres of virgin lands awaiting the capitalist. Tropical
fruits flourish in abundance, and the sugar-pine is well known
in our market, where it brings a higher price than any other pine
imported. Hardwood and fancy cabinet wood trees fill the forests, and
await the woodman's ax. Among these are some specimens of unexampled
beauty, notably a tree, the wood of which, when polished, resembles
veined marble, and another, rivaling in beauty the feathers in a
peacock's tail. Precious metals abound, although systematic effort
has never been directed to the locating of paying veins. Rivers and
rivulets are plenty, and water-power is abundant; and the regime
should see the installation of power plants and electric lighting
all over the island, within a short time after occupation. On the
lowlands, large tracts of pasturage under gu