The buildings of the city are all of modern date. Only a few foundation walls near the ocean shore, and the old fort, remain from former days. The old fort is situated on the point of land partly enclosing Puerto Plata harbor and is surrounded on three sides by buildings of the present fort. It is a large round whitewashed structure having the appearance of a huge cheesebox; its walls are of enormous thickness and it is now used as a jail. In former days the inhabitants had much difficulty in obtaining drinking water, but Puerto Plata was the first city to be provided with a general system of water works, having been followed only recently by Santiago. The water is brought from a stream a little over a mile away. The ride there is a beautiful one but it goes to prove that the movement for good thoroughfares has not yet extended to the roads. From all parts of Puerto Plata Mt. Isabel de Torres is seen towering behind the city. The view obtained from the slopes of the mountain, over miles of shoreline and a broad expanse of ocean, is of indescribable grandeur. The traveler who visits Puerto Plata carries away with him pleasant memories of the clean city, its comfortable clubs, its hospitable citizens and its beautiful surroundings. Other towns of the province are _Altamira_, 18 miles southwest of Puerto Plata, astride a hill rising in the middle of a valley of the coast range of mountains; _Blanco_, on the coast 20 miles northwest of Puerto Plata and 10 miles east of the site of Isabela, the first city in the new world; and _Bajabonico_, 10 miles southwest of Puerto Plata, a village called into being by the building of the Central Dominican Railroad. PROVINCE OF MONTE CRISTI _San Fernando de Monte Cristi_, 196 miles northwest of Santo Domingo City, the capital of Monte Cristi province, was founded during the government of Ovando by sixty Spanish families, and after giving promise of prosperity decayed with the rest of the colony. It was supported for a time by a brisk contraband trade which sprang up with the Dutch and other nations and to put a stop to which the town was destroyed in 1606 like Puerto Plata and the inhabitants transferred to Monte Plata, to the south of the central mountain range. In 1750 a royal dispensation granted it the right to free trade with all nations for a period of ten years and it began to attain prominence as a port, but the wars with the Haitians, the War of Restoration with the Spaniards and the many civil wars have retarded its progress. Only in the last few years has it received a new impetus. The town is built about a mile from the shore, with which it is connected by a tiny horse car. About thirty houses are connected with a private system of waterworks which supplies water from the Yaque river. Situated as it is in the arid region of Santo Domingo the city bears much resemblance to some of the western towns of the United States.