Crocodiles of huge size are plentiful in the Cuban Everglades, as well as a great variety of waterfowl. Some of the streams heading in the swamp afford excellent fishing. Mangrove snappers and tarpon abound in them. The hutia, a tree-going, ratlike animal is found in large numbers. It is several times the size of a rat, and roasts to a most succulent dish. Deer introduced from Europe on the Old Spanish estates are fairly numerous. Boa constrictors inhabit the dry forests of the limestone sections, making their homes in the cavernous rock. Some of these are reported to be of large size. They are harmless, as their normal food is bats. One is sometimes kept as a rat catcher for house and corncrib.
In November and December mallards and blue-winged teal come down from the north, but usually leave by February. The yaguesa, or whistling tree duck, is sometimes seen. Parrots are abundant along the south shore. White and blue herons are plentiful, and egrets are seen occasionally. Mocking birds sing gaily about the shacks of natives living here and there through the rocky areas, and a songster with notes somewhat like the North American wood thrush enlivens the shadowy depths of royal palm swamps. Since much of the region is without economic value, there is opportunity for establishing an important reserve for wild life. The isolation of the interior areas and difficulties of travel combine to afford considerable protection.
To the north and west of the Zapata lies one of the great areas of the famous red soil of Cuba, the Matanzas Red Plain. This region is occupied by one of the most remarkable soils of the world-red soil that shows no visible change from the surface to depths of twenty-five feet or more. The texture of this is finer grained than the average clay of the United States, yet the rainfall, amounting to seventy inches annually, is entirely absorbed, passing downward through the ground. So rapidly does it percolate that plowing can be done within a few hours after heavy downpours. Despite this thorough sub-drainage the soil conserves sufficient moisture to produce fine crops of sugar cane.
Much of this land has been in cane continuously for more than a hundred years, and is still producing. Some fields, which have not been replanted for twenty years, are giving yields of twenty tons of cane per acre without fertilizer. It is difficult to understand how land subjected to ages of leaching, as this has been, retains its fertility. It has but slight stickiness, and is entirely different from clay soil, as known in temperate zones. In the eastern patt of this plain, there is an area of three hundred fifty thousand acres that has not a single stream or drainage depression in it, although the rainfall is heavier than in eastern United States.
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