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About two-thirds of the population are in the district of Matanzas, and the Pueblo Nuevo district has about double the population of Versalles. Pueblo Nuevo stands on ground originally a swamp, and is low, flat, and only 3 or 4 feet above the sea.

Versalles is on a bluff of the harbor, and its houses are situated, for the most part, from 15 to 40 feet above the sea. The district of Matanzas has ill constructed and useless sewers in only two streets, and no houses connected therewith.

So much of this district and of Versalles as is built on the hill slope is naturally well drained, but the Pueblo Nuevo district, and those parts of Matanzas built in immediate proximity to the banks of the river, are very ill drained. Since 1872 Matanzas has had an aqueduct from the Bello spring, 7 miles distant. The supply is alleged to be both abundant and excellent.

Matanzas is divided into three districts, viz, the central district of Matanzas, which, about half a mile in width across the center of population, lies between the two little rivers, San Juan to the south, and the Yumuri to the north; the Pueblo Nuevo district, south of the San Juan, and around the inland extremity of the harbor; and the district of Versalles, north of the Yumuri, nearest to the open sea, as also to the anchorage ground, and, sanitarily, the best situated district in the city.