A line known as the North Shore Railroad of Cuba, connecting the city of Nuevitas with Caibarien, in Santa Clara Province, some 200 miles west, was surveyed and capital for it was promised, in 1914. The breaking out of the European war delayed work on the road, but its completion can be assured in the near future. Several large sugar estates have been located along the line that will open up a territory rich in soil and natural resources. Important iron mines, too, in the foothills of the Sierra de Cubitas, are waiting only this transportation to add an important revenue to the Province. A great deal of valuable timber will be available when the line is in operation. Owing to the large beds of valuable ore belonging to the mineral zone of the Cubitas, it is quite probable that the mining industry will some day rank next to that of general farming in Camaguey, although as far as natural advantages are concerned, there is no industry which in the end can rival that of stock raising. During 1895, the first year of the War of Independence, over a million head of sleek, fat cattle were registered in the Province of Camaguey, where the grasses are so rich that an average of seventy head can be kept in condition throughout the year on a hundred acres of land. The two grasses commonly found in Camaguey were both brought from abroad. Of these, the Guinea, imported from western Africa, grows luxuriantly on all the plateaus and higher lands of the province, while the Parana, a long running grass from the Argentine, does best in the lower lands and savannas. One stock man of Camaguey at least, has succeeded in producing splendid fields of alfalfa, from which seven or eight cuttings are taken each year. Fruits of all kinds, especially oranges and pineapples, grow luxuriantly in this Province, but owing to the lack of transportation, the railroad haul to Havana being practically prohibitory, shipments of fruit and vegetables to the northern markets are confined almost entirely to a steamer which leaves the harbor of Nuevitas once every two weeks. Owing perhaps to the rich and comparatively cheap lands offered by the Province of Camaguey, more Americans are said to have settled in this section than in any other part of Cuba. The first colony, called La Gloria, was located in 1900 on the beautiful bay of Guanaja or Turkey Bay, some five or six miles back from the shore. The location, although healthful and in a productive country, was most unfortunate as far as transportation facilities were concerned. Two hundred or more families made clearings in the forests of the Cubitas, and there made for themselves homes under adverse circumstances. The worst of these was the isolation of the spot, and lack of communication with any city or town nearer than Camaguey, some forty-five miles southwest, or Nuevitas, forty miles east; without railroads, wagon roads, or even water communication by vessels drawing over seven feet.