"Messrs. Ariza and Herrera reported: 'Havana has no sewers save in a few principal streets. These sewers have been built at interrupted intervals, without reference to any general plan for drainage. They are seldom cleaned and are generally obstructed in part or wholly with sediment or filth from the streets, and exhale offensive odours. As the sewers are few in number, the greater part of the water of the city empties through the streets, into the harbour or the sea; but the quantity flowing into the sea is comparatively small.' Mr. A. H. Taylor, a civil engineer, thoroughly informed on this subject, testified that the sewers of only three streets subserved any good purpose whatever, and that the remainder were so defective that the city would really be much better off without them. Through the gratings, which have large interspaces, the dirt and refuse of the streets find such ready entrance that a number of these sewers were soon filled up, with apparently solid materials, to within a few inches of the surface openings. Since very few houses or privies are connected with sewers, these are less offensive than they would otherwise be, but no one who has seen them can find any words except of unhesitating condemnation for their grossly defective structure." THE PAVING OF STREETS "Less than one-third of the population live on paved streets, and these are well paved and kept as clean, it is believed cleaner, than is usual in the United States. The remainder live on unpaved streets, which for the most part are very filthy. Many of these, even in old and densely populated parts of the city, are no better than rough country roads, full of rocks, crevices, mud-holes, and other irregularities, so that vehicles traverse them with difficulty at all times, and in the rainy season they are sometimes impassable for two months. Rough, muddy, or both, these streets serve admirably as permanent receptacles for much decomposing animal and vegetable matter. Finally, not less, probably more, than one-half of the population of Havana live on streets which are constantly in an extremely insanitary condition, but these streets, though so numerous, are not in the beaten track of the pleasure tourist, in which capacity the writer, in 1856, spent ten days in Havana without witnessing many of the evils now testified to with emphasis." DENSITY OF POPULATION