These salt water lakes or bays are often twenty-five miles or more in length by ten wide and with an average depth of fifteen feet. Unfortunately, not only are they separated by narrow passes seldom carrying over three feet, but exit to the ocean for any craft drawing over five or six feet is very difficult to find.
The harbor of Nuevitas, in the northwestern corner of the Province, is one of the finest in the Island. Its width varies from three to ten miles, while its length is approximately twenty, carrying excellent deep water anchorage throughout almost its entire extent. A peculiar river-like opening, six miles in length, deep and narrow, connects it with the Atlantic Ocean.
In proportion to its size, the province of Camaguey has less railroad mileage than any other in the Island. Until 1902, when Sir William Van Horn, late President of the Cuba Company, connected the City of Santa Clara by rail with Santiago de Cuba, there were but two railroads in that section of the country. One, the Camaguey & Nuevitas Road, connected the capital with practically the only shipping point on the north coast. Another, built many years before, for military purposes, connected the town of San Ferrando, on the north coast, with Jucaro on the south coast, and ran parallel with what was known as the Trocha, a military ditch about eighty kilometers in length, with two story concrete forts at each kilometer, and low dug-outs, or shooting boxes, located midway between the principal forts. The ground was cleared on either side of the railroad for a kilometer, while on both sides a perfect network of barbed wire, fastened by staples to the top of wood stakes, rendered it difficult for either infantry or cavalry to cross from one side to the other. This modern military device was established by the Spanish forces in 1895, so as to prevent the Cubans from carrying the revolution into Santa Clara and the western provinces.
As in the other provinces of Cuba, cane growing and the making of sugar forms the chief industry, although, owing to the wonderfully rich potreros, or grazing lands of Camaguey, the raising of live stock in the near future will doubtless rival all other sources of wealth in that section.
There are twenty sugar mills in the province with a production of approximately 3,000,000 bags. The two mills at Las Minas and Redencion, between Camaguey and Nuevitas, have been in operation for many years, but with the opening up of the Van Horn railroad a new impetus was given to sugar production, and during the past ten years, some eighteen new mills have been established at various points along the railroad where lands were fertile and comparatively cheap.
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.