Lead. This metal, reported to exist in several localities, has had no development save in Santiago de Cuba, where two or three mines have been opened. One of them shows a twenty-inch vein, forty-six per cent. copper, with some silver and zinc and a trace of gold. The mines so far have been opened by American "boomers" for the purpose of bringing the properties into notice. Coal. A serious deficiency in Cuban products is mineral fuel; and although coal is said to exist and, again, said not to exist on the Island, Mr. Frederick W. Ramsden, late British Consul at Santiago, made the following report in 1895: "A deposit of coal has been found at five leagues of the Dos Caminos railway station, or about fifteen leagues north-north-west of Santiago. A sample sent to the United States analysed as follows: [Illustration: ORE BANK OF JURAGUA MINES.] Per Cent. Remarks. Moisture 13.20 Specific gravity 1.368. Volatile combustible 49.20 One cubic yard weighs 2303 pounds. Half sulphur 47.76 Fixed carbon 28.48 This sample is fairly black, and when powdered it contains visible layers of pyrites and no appreciable bitumen. Half sulphur 27.04 Ash 9.12 Sulphur 2.88 "I understand, however, that since this sample was taken the mines have been partially opened up and a better class of coal found lower down. No estimate has been formed as to the quantity of coal there, as no investigations have so far been made with this object. I am informed, however, that the geological formation is favourable." Some of the coal reported in other sections of the Island proves to be either a lignite or a hardened bitumen. Possibly workable deposits of coal exist somewhere, and efforts will be made to explore thoroughly every locality where there is the slightest coal prospect, as so much depends in the development of manufacturing industries upon contiguous and cheap fuel.