, 1888-05-27

made. This woven work is perhaps
eighteen inches in thickness, and as rap
idly as II progressed upward a score or so
of guajiros forced into the chinks and in
t~erstices a hard plaster made of clay,
water and the tough espartillo grass, so
that by the time the casa de vivienda was
ready for its roof, as two or three days
consumed in a Cuban house raising, the
sides are dry and solid as a brick wall.
This particular structure was about forty
feet square in area, making a pretty com
Portable home for a newly welded pair.
The root went TO a tremendous height at
the ridge, and with its bellying arch of
llaya poles reaching out over rude. wide
porches, was matched with the broad
leaves of the palma de manaca, a small
species Of the palm, which serves for a
perfect shelter for a period of seven years.
But to me more fascinating than all,
were the days in the deep woods. Amer
leans can form no conception Of these
Cuban forests. Perhaps the noblest of
them are In the region along the north
east coast. There the stateliness and
grandeur as well as value Of these forest
trees are almost incredible. To illustrate,
in the wilderness between the old walled
town of Holquin and the sea, at Sepa,
where the forests are almost impenetrable
L have a friend, who, at a venture, three
years since purchased a tract of nearly
10000 for $4,000. All commercial New
York laughed at him. But he went
there and began in a modest way cutting
and shipping mahogany. To-day he is
worth five million dollars, has 300 yokes
OF oxen, employs over a regiment of men,
lives like a lord in a palace of mahogany,
and practically has not yet touched his
giant trees, from among which the other
day he had one cut and transported to
the sea, by the use oil fifty yokes of oxen,
which squared tifty-six inches and con
tanned 5000 feet Commercial | measure
ment) OF lumber! That one log laid down
in Philadelphia. New York or Boston, is
worth nearly 81 900. Throughout the
whole island, with its total area of about
10000 square miles, from extended OBJ.
servation and travel in every one of its
six provinces, and aided by the best iudg-
ment OF hundreds of Cubans with whom
| have conversed, / would say that at a
moderate estimate one.half, or fully %
900 square miles of the entire area is COW
cred by virgin forest.
And who could be so daring as to csti.
mate the value of these forests filed as
they are with the most valuable of woods
known to IN and modern archi-
lecture, were Cuba ours, and its people
frcef AT a no greater price than is now
paid for large tracts of American pine
Nstumpage" the untouched forests of
Cuba are to-day worth $l5 1000, 900. But
as every acre holds woods worth tar more
than $l0,0 900 in the markets, and every
standing tree, at the remotest distance, is
not seventy-fve miles from an accessible
seaport point, the ridiculously low esti-
mated value of 800 per acre would give a
total valuation to Cuban forests, exclusive
OF all expense OF numbering and market
ing, of over a billion and a half dollarsl
All the righteous sentiment which should
be felt by the citizens of a free and great
republic for a people enslaved by an in
co~nceivably hateful and hated tyranny at
our very doors aside, there would seem to
here and there exist an occasional reason
why this transcendently rich and beautiful
country should be ours.
The variety and serviceable value of
these Cuban woods are as remarkable as
their area and luxuriance; while the ma
ture and characteristics of many, in their
a~daptability to the rude uses of tropical
life, form most fascinating studies. /
have already mentioned the g~uabrahaca,
This grows in all portions of the island; is
used for piers, ~bulkheads, house founda-
tons; and in all places where a practically
lndestructible material is required; but is
found in greatest protusion along the
southern coast. 1t is harder than horn.
and whenever it is felled in the forests, or
worked for use, the labradors or wood
choppers, always construct forges heal at
hand, upon which their axes and other
edged tools are constantly repaired.
Contrary to general belief, oak and
hickory abound; while cedars of tremepd-
Gus size, frequently twelve feet in circum.
ference, are as common as maple in Yer.
mont. The mahogany is n colossal tree
here. | have seen many on this southern
coast, requiring tiye men, fingertips to
tips, TO reach around. Their height is
from GO to l25 feet. Differing from the
clustering habit of most forest trees, they
are always found standing alone separated
by distances of from 20 to so feet by
specimens OF other families. In the finer
forests, perhaps half n hundred may be
found upon n acre of ground. 1t is
called the caobas here, and with its mas
siye trunk, dark, regular but shaggy bark,
and its noble spreading top, much like the
Indian laurel it is one of the grandest oc-
cupants of the Cuban forest. The man
tedueros is precisely like our American
poplar in appearance, bark, fiber, branch
and leaf; but its March load of blossoms,
similar to the beautiful camellia, fills the
land with odor, and it also bears a small
s~ucculent nut upon which wild and do
mesticated swine quickly fatten. The
gueso Is n tree very similar to our hickory,
with a tight, shining bark and round,
wax like leaf. 1t is the homework of
Cuba, and is much used for yokes and
cart-timber.
The almiqui is a splen did tree, remind
ing strikingly OF the California red wood,
which has of late come into such general
use in the states for car timbers and in
terror house ~inishings. While its trunk
has not so great a diameter, the texture is
finer, the color deeper, and the wood sus
ceptible of a higher polish. The guayco
is the fgnum vitae. Its character and
value require no description. 1t grows in
~profusion in the denser forests of the
island attaining a diameter of three, and a
height of 75 feet.
Then there the %jeqlies. of the same
family, and density Of fiber, as tie qua
haca; the rosewood, with whose beauty
we are familiar: the carne de doncella.