The times., 1898-07-04

that cut. The governor general went back
to Santiago in a condition of total inebrie-
ty, but he had agreed to all we asked
before he went. From Santiago he went
Immediately 10 Havana.
"The first ship that brought powder to
us was seized at the entrance to the bay
of Santiago and the powder stored in
the arsenal, while the ship was fined 800
We got the powder after we had made
the proper moves, but the $l00, never.
."rhey do business in pretty slow
way said one of the former managers
of the Cuban enterprise There are
eight pockets in the dock of the Spanish
American Company and few more IN
that at Vera Cruz The latter has a stor-
age dock back in the mountains and they
tram the ore by man power into the
storage dock from the cars. little cars
that carry about six or seven tons IN
stead of thirty-tive or forty as here, drop
it out of the storage dock and tram IT
again by hand TO the shipping dock when
a vessel comes in. They are in luck II
they can load a ship in three or four
days, and it usually takes several Tunes
as long. At the Duluth docks we load
3,000-ton ship in from forty-eight minutes
to an hour. Single docks here have as
high as 200 pockets. and the Duluth and
Iron Range road has five such docks. III
the country We're under American control
or were free in the hands of the Cubans
there would be opportunity to do busi-
ness in a business way, but the thefts
and officialdom of the Spaniards XIII eV-
erythng.
THAT entire part of Cuba is very noun
famous. The hills rise direct from the
water and tower one above the other
back toward the center of the Island.
They are fun of mineral. Iron is not the
only wealth, but there are manganese
mines and copper is very plentiful AL
Cobre, some fifteen miles northwest from
Santiago, on the western side or the pay
where Cervera is now lying, Is an ola
copper mine owned by the English. The
iron mines are very rich. The ores run
about &C per cent iron and with but trace
of silica or of phosphorus, so they are
very fine bessemer ores. They resemble
the best ores shipped from the Minnesota
Iron Company's hard ore mines in this
country. There Is no underground min
ing The ore rises hundreds of feet into
the air and continues for miles. AT the
Spanish-American properties it comes to
the surface in the bed of the Baiquiri
River four miles from the mouth.
There are millions and millions of tons
Of this high grade ore in that single de-
posit. The Juragua and Sigua companies
have millions more, and the entire coun-
try in that section is impregnated with
iron. Much of the iron ore is rich enough
in manganese to be valuable for that.
The ground Is covered with underground
of the dense Character peculiar to the
tropics cactus abounds and is serious
difficulty, and the soil is scarce. So steep
are the mountains that for several miles
the narrow gauge railroad Of the Juragua
Company is a series of switchbacks, ris-
ing one above the other in terraces. at the
top of which the mines are located In
time mining viii be carried on lower
down, and in time that section will be
one Of the richest mining countries this
side The Atlantic.
with suitable methods and Americans
to work them these mines can supply
all the ores that can be used at furnaces
and steel plants along the eastern coast
of the United States. England also Will
find there the ores that it now mines IN
Spain and Sweden. The Spanish ores
are giving out, ana those of Sweden are
expensive. We made estimates that un-
der proper conditions these rich ores
could could be mined and delivered in
vessels at the Cuban ports at not far
from 40 cents a ton. There is no royalty
as the mines are all owned by the COM
panies operating them, and with reasona-
bic ocean freights these ores would drive
any Spanish or Swedish ores from the
European market. They are richer than
any sent from Barcelona or Bilboa and
of higher percentage of iron, very few
of them going below 65 per cent IRON