Indications, such as boulders that through seismic disturbances or erosion seem to have rolled down from their original beds, and occasional outcroppings of copper-bearing ore, are found in every Province of the Island, although up to 1790 but few explorations worthy of mention were made outside of the Province of Oriente. The demands for metals of all kinds, especially chrome, manganese and copper, have resulted in more or less desultory prospecting since 1915, which has resulted in finding outcroppings of copper scattered throughout the mountains of Pinar del Rio. Claims have been located near Mantua, Vinales, Las Acostas, Santa Lucia, Pinar del Rio, and at various places between La Esperenza and Bahia Honda along the north coast. Reports of copper or “claims,” resulting from traces found, have been made also in the Isle of Pines and at Minas, only a short distance east of the city of Havana, in that province. Copper claims have been registered near Pueblo Nuevo, too, in the Province of Matanzas. In the province of Santa Clara, claims have been recorded in the districts of Cienfuegos, Trinidad and Sancti Spiritus. Several very promising copper mines have been opened up in this province that will undoubtedly yield a profit if worked under intelligent management and with the judicious employment of capital. In the Province of Camaguey, copper has been discovered near Minas, and as several different places along the line of the Sierra de Cubitas. In Oriente, copper claims have been registered near Holguin and Bayamo, while “El Cobre,” of course, has been famous for its yield of ore since the days of the Spanish conquerors. The excessive demand for copper resulting from the War in Europe, together with the high prices offered for that metal, recalled the fact that many years ago Spanish engineers and prospectors, among the hills of Pinar del Rio, frequently found small outcroppings of copper ore, and in some cases sank shafts for short distances, where the ore had been removed and carried to the coast on mule back. The low price of copper at that time, however, and the scarcity of labor following the abolition of slavery at the conclusion of the Ten Years’ War, discouraged serious work on the part of the old timers, traces of whose efforts still remain at various points along the northern slope of the Organos Mountains. The first record we have of the exploration of the mineral zone in which the famous copper mine of this Province was discovered, dates back to 1790, but it resulted in no definite or profitable work. An English company of which General Narciso Lopez was president, during the early part of the 19th century, made some explorations in the district of El Brujo and Cacarajicara, located in the mountains back of Bahia Honda; but the defeat of Lopez’s revolutionary forces, and his subsequent execution in 1851, put an end to the effort.