The soil of Porto Rico is exceedingly fertile. In the mountains it is a red clay, colored with peroxide of iron, in the valleys it is black and less compact, and on the coasts it is sandy, but capable of some culture. The pasture lands in the northern and eastern parts of the island are superior to any others in the West Indies. Porto Rico is essentially a land of rivers and streams. Of course none of them are of any great length, but of the entire number, some thirteen hundred, forty are navigable for more or less distances for commercial purposes. Mr. John Beggs, a former planter of Porto Rico, says that the island is perfectly adapted for commerce. Sugar, coffee, cotton, corn and potatoes are constantly shipped down the navigable rivers, and were Porto Rico to be fully cultivated, many more streams could be opened and communication made between others by means of canals, so that the entire island would present a system of water ways which would make it an ideal place for the shipping of useful articles to the United States. The water of the rivers and brooks and lakes is remarkably pure, and there is quite an industry in its shipment for sale to other West India islands. It is stated that more than twenty of these islands send to Porto Rico for water. Little boats sail up the harbor of San Juan, fill their tanks with water and sail away again, Havana's chief scourge is the lack of fresh water, but Porto Rico has all the water it can use and enough to supply islands hundreds of miles away. The anchorages can not be said to be the best in the world, although a few of them are excellent, and most of them sufficiently deep for ordinary craft. Mayaguez Bay on the west coast admits vessels of any size and is the best anchorage on the island. Guanica is the best on the south coast, of which it is the most western port. It was here that the American troops first landed. Still Guanica is not visited by much shipping. The district immediately surrounding it is low and swampy, and the roads leading from it are not good. Guanica has been the outlet for the produce of San German Sabana Grande and, to some extent, of Yanco, which is on the railroad. The western and southwestern parts of the island have been particularly over-run by the Porto Rican rebels, and this has undoubtedly done much to injure its commerce. But with the advent of the Americans all this will be changed. The eastern coast is fairly indented and washed by a sea which is usually smooth. On the rugged north side, where the ocean currents set to southward, there are no good anchorages between Arecibo and San Juan. The port of San Juan, however, affords good shelter and will be an important centre for merchant shipping as well as an attractive rendezvous for yachts on a pleasure cruise. The harbor is deep enough to admit large vessels, but its channel communicating with the sea is winding and difficult, and can be navigated safely only with the aid of a pilot.