The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-18
WATER IN CUBA.
Notwithstanding the Heavy Rainfall
There Is "a D0fcient Supply of
Drinking Water.

Notwithstanding the Heavy Rainfall
There Is Dahcient Supply of
Drinking Water.
From the Army and Navy Journal
One of. the difficulties our troops are
likely to meet in Cuba is a deficient sup
ply of drinking water. After hearing so
much about the rainy season in that is
land and the difficulty, amounting, it is
often asserted, practically to an impossi-
bIlity, of moving troops at that season,
it may surprise the unintiated to- learn
that the annual rainfall of Havana is
precisely the same as that of New York
about forty and one-half inches. Even
during the six rainy months, May to Oc-
tOber, inclusive the rainfall is only about
twenty-eight inches, and in the dry half
of the year twelve and three quarters
inches, rain falling in every month of the
year 1t is the peculiar typographical con-
ditons of Cuba that control its storage
of water and reduce it in this respect in
places almost to the state of a desert
country
The general characteristic of the island
is a series of mountainous elevations with
a very narrow fringe of level land. In the
highlands of the interior, which in the
western part reach an elevation of $500
to 5000 feet, and in the eastern part $500,
300 and 1900 feet, the rainfall increases
up to three times what it is on the coast,
and the difference between the wet and
dry season is strongly marked. In one
month more rain will fall there than in
the whole year at Havana. The water
courses then become torrents and the
steep slopes deliver the water rapidly TO
the lowlands, flooding them, but leaving
the uplands comparatively dry. Cuba is,
in fact an oVerdrained country, and tie
stream beds which are floods in the rainy
season, may be as dry as Arizona a month
later.
The rock formation of the island is, to a
very great extent limestone, with some
schstose and granite rocks, and the COW
er of soil must be cOmpara lively thin or
else so subject 10 drainage on account of
lis relative hight and nearness to the sea
that it loses its store Of water rapidly
Wells are deep, from 50 to $50 feet, and
usually more than 100 feet. and this not in
The extreme interior, but within fifteen
miles of Cardeuas, for instance. Through
much of their depth these walls are in
solid rock. Under these circumstan it is
evident that the supply of drinking water
to camp by driven wells will not often
be practicable e., along the line of a
constant flowing river. In the savanna
country along the coast webs could be
driven with success, but they are not
could hardly be wholesome. From such in
formation as we have been able to gather
ii Is probable that a good water base viii
be one OF the necessities of an invading
force.
Now that the subject of sanitation is re-
celving the attention il deserves. would it
not be well 20 detail one or two officers
from the medical corps 10 attend to this es-
pecial branch? a simple apparatus with
the chemicals necessary for microscopic
and chemical tests could easily be proviG-
ed, and, while military services does not
always permit, of selecting a camp at will
it is quite likely that bad conditions could
be sometimes avoided, and every improve
ment of this kind tends to the preserVa-
ton of individual hfc and the army
strength. The water of the savannas must
often be very bad as we found in the
Chickahominy swamps and the labors of
a few officers might mitigate its evils ma.
terially. Some waters that look good
enough are deadly, and some that are not
attractive in appearance are entirely
healthful.