Book Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IMPRESSIONS OF CUBA. By G. F. Matthew. Having been recommended several years ago to try a sea voyage for the benefit of my health, I accepted the, invitation of some very kind friends to visit Cienfuegos, a town on the south side of Cuba. My voyage was made in the winter of 1866-67, and I remained two months and a half on the Island. The following pages contain a short description of such of the natural features of the country as still remain impressed on my memory, together with a few remarks upon its people, industries and vegetation. We sailed from New York on Christmas Day, and after being buffeted about by contrary winds for a fortnight, at length entered the trade-wind region and sped onward toward the West Indies. On entering this zone of N. E. Trades, the pale misty sky of the North Atlantic is at once exchanged for one of the clearest blue, and the ill defined horizon for one of the greatest distinctness; so that the voyager is no longer left in doubt as to the line where sky ends and sea begins. The azure ocean in these latitudes has a fascination for one accustomed to the dull green hues of our northern seas, while the floating gulf-weed with its miniature world of living forms, and the new kinds of fishes?reflecting from their sides in metallic tints the color of the waters in which they find a home?are sights upon which the eye dwells with ever increasing pleasure. With the charming weather which prevails on the southern coast of Cuba during the winter months, the voyager as he creeps along can thoroughly enjoy the ever-changing views presented bv that magnificent range of mountains?the Sierra Maestra. This range extends along the coast from near Cape Maysi, the eastern extremity of the Island, to Cape Cruz, .a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, ..