de available for commercial purposes. Among
these, on the north coast, from west to east, are Bahia Honda, Mariel,
Havana, Matanzas, Nuevitas, Nipe Bay, and Baracoa. On the south, from east
to west, are Guantanamo, Santiago, Manzanillo, Cienfuegos, and Batabano. At
all of these, there are now cities or towns with trade either by steamers
or small sailing vessels. Among the interesting physical curiosities of
the island are the numerous "disappearing rivers." Doubtless the action
of water on limestone has left, in many places, underground chambers and
tunnels into which the streams have found an opening and in which they
disappear, perhaps to emerge again and perhaps to find their way to the sea
without reappearance. This seems to explain numerous fresh-water springs
among the keys and off-shore. The Rio San Antonio quite disappears near San
Antonio de los Banos. Near Guantanamo, a cascade drops three hundred feet
into a cavern and reappears a short distance away. Such disappearing rivers
are not unknown elsewhere but Cuba has several of them.

* * * * *

The Census Report of 1907, prepared under American auspices, states that
"the climate of Cuba is tropical and insular. There are no extremes of
heat, and there is no cold weather." This is quite true if the records of a
thermometer are the standard; quite untrue if measured by the sensations of
the human body. It is true that, in Havana, for instance, the thermometer
seldom exceeds 90 deg. in the hottest months, and rarely if ever goes below 50 deg.
in the coldest. But a day with the thermometer anywhere in the 80s may seem
to a northern body very hot, and a day with the thermometer in the 50s
is cold for anyone, whether a native or a visitor. There is doubtless a
physical reason for the fact that a hot day in the north seems hotter than
the same temperature in the south, while a day that seems, in the north,
only pleasantly cool, seems bitterly cold in the tropics. When the
thermometer drops below 60 deg. in Havana, the coachmen blanket their horses,
the people put on all the clothes they have, and all visitors who are
at all sensitive to low temperature go about shivering. Steam heat and
furnaces are unknown, and fireplaces are a rarity. Yet, in general, the
variations are not wide, either from day to day or when measured by
seasons. The extremes are the infrequent exceptions. Nor is there wide
difference between day and night. Taking the