"_Water._--This is one of the most serious problems which confront the municipal authorities of this city, and one of much concern to us, if American troops are to be quartered there. The supply is absolutely inadequate to the demands of the city. The hotels and a few residences have cement cisterns built in the ground and use rain-water; but the chief supply comes from a small (and said to be badly polluted) stream, the Jicotea River, a small branch of the Cannau. The water is pumped into two aqueducts; the principal one, which is called after the Jicotea River, holds four hundred thousand litres; a smaller one, the Bouffartique, holds three hundred thousand litres. Pipes from these two aqueducts run through a few of the streets, above ground, alongside the curbing. The gates are open only two hours daily. The hospitals use this water, after boiling. As a remedy for this condition, I am told, there was a project to bring water from a point twenty miles distant, from the falls of the Hanabanilla River, 1200 feet above the sea. Absolute freedom from pollution was claimed. It was abandoned on account of the war. The estimated cost for this work was $1,000,000. The Jicotea aqueduct is simply a large open cistern, built of rock and cement, attached to a brick building in which the Spanish quartermaster has his stores. There are about two hundred wells in the city, but infected, the privy sinks being within a few feet. "_Quarantine._--At a point nine miles from the city, on the western shore, I found, in my opinion, an ideal location for a quarantine station. The place, the Concha, owned by the Marquis de Apezteguia as a winter resort, can be purchased. The palace, built on a terrace near the water's edge, was burned by the insurgent forces. A pier thirty to fifty feet can be built so that steamers can have eight fathoms of water. An island about one-half a mile distant could be used, and a hospital for infectious and contagious diseases built. "In concluding this report I wish to call your attention to the probability of an extensive spread of smallpox in the interior. At a town eight hours' ride from Habana to Colon, I saw beggars convalescent from smallpox."