t is
the Cauto, in the eastern department, which, rising in the Sierra del
Cobre, passes between Holguin and Jiguani, and empties on the south
coast a little north of Manzanillo. It is navigable for half its
length, between fifty and sixty leagues. The river Ay has falls in its
course two hundred feet high, and a natural bridge spanning it, nearly
as remarkable as that of Virginia. The Sagua le Grande is navigable
for five leagues, and the same may be said of the river Sasa. The
Agabama, emptying on the south coast near Trinidad, is also partially
navigable. There are two hundred and sixty rivers in all, independent
of rivulets and torrents. So abundantly is the island supplied with
fresh-water springs, especially on the south side, that the pure
liquid filters through the fissures of the stratified rock in such
quantities as to form, by hydrostatic pressure, springs in the sea
itself some distance from the shore. The sulphurous and thermal
springs of San Diego are the resort of numerous invalids annually, who
come hither from Europe and America.

The coast and harbors of Cuba are carefully marked for the purpose of
navigation by eighteen well-placed lighthouses, visible from fifteen
to twenty miles at sea, according to the importance of the surrounding
points. That which stands in Moro Castle, on the south side of the
harbor's entrance at Havana, is eighty feet in height and about a
hundred and fifty from the level of the sea. It is visible in clear
weather twenty miles from shore. In honor of a former Governor-General
this lighthouse bears the inscription "O'Donnell, 1844," in mammoth
letters. So plain and safe is the entrance to this harbor, which in
the narrowest part is some hundred yards wide, that a pilot is hardly
necessary, though foreign vessels generally take one. There is little
or no tide on this part of the coast, the variations never exceeding
two feet. No regular ebb and flow is therefore observable, but when
the land breeze rises there is a very slight tide-way setting out of
the harbor. No country in the world of the size of this island has so
many large and fine harbors. They number twenty-nine on its northern
side and twenty-eight on the southern. The well-defined water-line
along the yellow, rusty rocks of the coast shows the mark of ages, and
also that there has been no upheaval since the land took its present
shape. Where there are no regular harbors the shore is indented with
numerous deep chann