Most of the foreign trade at the present time is with the American ports along the eastern coast of the Atlantic and through the Gulf ports by which Cuba has access to the Mississippi Valley, while along the Gulf Stream Cuba has a direct avenue, as well as a favorable current, that carried her commerce to England, France and other countries of western Europe. Beginning with the harbors and bays of the north coast we have the western group located in Pinar del Rio, on the Gulf of Mexico, not distant from Vera Cruz and Tampico in Mexico, or Galveston in Texas, while almost facing them we have New Orleans, Pascagoula, Mobile and Pensacola, with Tampa on the Florida coast. On this group the first is that fine deep land locked deep-water harbor of Bahia Honda (deep bay), sixty miles west of Havana, that was first selected by the Government of the United States as a coaling station, but afterwards surrendered for Guantanamo on account of the latter’s proximity to the Panama Canal and the Pacific, to which it gives entrance. Bahia Honda has a deep, rather narrow and fairly straight channel that leads from the Gulf into a beautiful sheet of water, extending some five or six miles into the interior, where good anchorage may be found for quite a fleet of vessels. A twelve mile light is located on the western entrance of the harbor, while two fine range lights enable shipping to leave or enter at night. The little town of Bahia Honda, three miles back, is connected with the port by a fine macadam highway. Owing to the fact that this section of Pinar del Rio, although rich in minerals, has not been brought under development up to the present, most of the commerce is confined to the local trade between Bahia and Havana, sixty miles distant. Twelve miles further east and forty-eight miles from Havana, we have the beautiful harbor of Cabanas, a large, double-purse-shaped, interior bay, that extends some ten miles from east to west and furnishes one of the most picturesque land-locked harbors on the north coast. A small island in the entrance, on which is located one of the old time forts of the 17th century, obscures the bay itself from passing vessels. The shores of Cabanas are covered with extensive sugar cane fields that furnish cane to the surrounding mills, while its commerce is at the present time almost entirely local.