Industrial and commercial South America

by Annie S. Peck

Climate

The climate of Peru, a country like those preceding entirely within the tropics, has similar though greater variations from altitude, as its mountains are higher, its table-lands more lofty and extensive. With a larger area of temperate climate on its highlands, it has also, in wide contrast to the others, a fairly temperate region along its entire coast. This last, however, differs from the ordinary climate of the temperate zone, as does that at an altitude of 6000 or 8000 feet, in having weather which is never so hot as often in almost all parts of the United States, and at the same time is never so cold. At Lima, eight miles from the sea, the mean temperature is 66°; in the warm season, December to March, the mercury occasionally climbs a little above 80°, and in winter, June to September, it rarely falls below 50°. It is a little warmer farther north, and on the broad desert in the sun it is hot, hotter, hottest; as I once found to my sorrow. But comparatively few persons have occasion to travel there, and when they do they are likely to journey in the late afternoon and night; a more agreeable season for such cross country riding. On the deserts, too, it is colder at night as happens the world over.

The winter season at Lima is damp and cloudy, the atmosphere raw and chilly; with the mercury below 60° a fire would be most acceptable, but they never have one. On account of the dampness and the evaporation from the heat of the body, the cold is felt more than the temperature warrants, so that overcoats and warm wraps may be donned for sitting in the house. Conditions vary on other parts of the coast; in general there is less fog and greater heat farther north and more fog and mist towards the south. Mollendo is particularly damp and disagreeable. Some shore places near Lima have much more sunshine than that city, and 20 miles from the sea one gets beyond the fog belt into a region of perpetual spring. Although the climate of Lima is said to be rather enervating to permanent residents, many dwellers in the temperate zone would prefer it to that of any other coast city within the tropics.

On the highlands the climate is widely diverse. The seasons are opposite, as there it is the dry season from May to October, when it is damp on the coast, while the chief precipitation above occurs during their summer, the dry months below. At an altitude of 7000 or 8000 feet the climate is considered agreeable, at Arequipa averaging 57°, at Cajamarca 52°. At 12,000 to 15,000 feet it is generally cool, perhaps bracing to those accustomed thereto, but often trying to the visitor, who is likely to suffer from soroche, the name applied to mountain sickness.

In the montaña there is variation due to altitude, as in the sierra, as this region includes the forested district from an altitude of nearly 10,000 feet down to 1000 or less in the basin of the large Amazon tributaries. From 3000 to 7000 feet the climate is delightful to those who do not enjoy greater contrasts. Huánuco, altitude 6270 feet, has an annual temperature of 74°, other places a lower temperature, and far down, as at Iquitos, a higher. Most of the region is healthful, as is also the sierra, for persons of sound constitution under suitable living conditions and employing intelligent care. In some parts of the lowlands malaria is occasional or permanent, in other parts it is unknown.

CHAPTER XXI
PERU: CAPITAL, DEPARTMENTS, AND CHIEF CITIES

The Capital

Lima, the capital of Peru, on the banks of the Rimac eight miles from the port, Callao, is a city of picturesque charm. Its population, with its suburbs 200,000, is no indication of its commercial importance or of its elegance as a social centre. One of the three cities of the world where the best Spanish is spoken, some impartial critics say that in this respect it is unrivalled in the New World. Social amenities, everywhere important, are here peculiarly requisite for agreeable and successful business relations. Parisian elegance is seen on the narrow streets, and in one story dwellings as well as in larger mansions. The great cathedral is called the finest in South America.

The city takes pride in its numerous churches, its plazas, the excellent shops on the narrow streets, its University, founded in 1551, its museum, its new theatres, perhaps even in its bull-ring, the second largest in the world. As in the other West Coast cities, the hotels are inadequate (a new one is contracted for), but the old Maury long had the reputation of being the best on the Coast, and the excellence of its meals once rejoiced the heart even of a New York club man and his East Indian valet. Of course the city has modern conveniences, sky-scrapers happily excepted.

Individual Departments

The Coastal Divisions follow beginning at the north.

Tumbes, the Province farthest north, is distinguished from the rest of the coast by the fact that, bordering on Ecuador and the edge of the Gulf of Guayaquil, it partakes of the nature of that region, its north shore being covered with vegetation. (The adjoining Department of Piura, because of its proximity to the Ecuador forests and moisture, receives a rare torrential shower.) Rivers crossing Tumbes permit of irrigation where needed. The agricultural products are sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cacao. The oil wells are of great importance. Coal and other minerals are found.

Tumbes, the capital, on the Tumbes River, is connected by a narrow gauge railway with its port, Pizarro, seven miles distant, where steamers on their way to Guayaquil call every week or two.

Piura, the first Department south of Tumbes, is mainly desert, with some fertile irrigated valleys. The culture of a native cotton resembling wool is a leading industry. Other exports are Panamá hats and hides. Near the coast are important oil wells. Paita, with one of the best harbors on the coast, is the first port of call for some of the express steamers from Panamá.

Piura, capital of the Department, mean temperature 78°, is in an irrigated valley 60 miles from the desert port Paita, with which it is connected by rail. A line of narrower gauge goes on to Catacaos, population 20,000, six miles distant but nearer the sea, where 300,000 Panamá hats are made yearly. They may be bought at Paita for one fourth, perhaps for one eighth of the price commonly asked for the finer ones in New York. The main railway is to be prolonged from Piura to the town of Moropón. Farther south, from Bayovar, a small port on the Bay of Sechura, a railroad leads 30 miles to the sulphur mines of Reventazón; but the sulphur, an important export, must be cleared from the custom house at Paita.

Lambayeque, south of Piura, contains large estates of sugar and rice, the chief exports. It has one of the primary coast ports, Etén (population 3000), but a poor one, merely an open roadstead where there is always a swell, at times so severe that debarking passengers must be lowered in a sort of hogshead by windlass, chain, and pulley to the launch or small boat alongside. Freight lowered to lighters is likely here to get a particularly hard bump. An iron pier 2000 feet long is for the use of the lighters.

Chiclayo, the capital, is 41 miles by rail from Etén. By this railway and its branches, Ferreñafe, Lambayeque, and Patapó may also be reached. From Pimentel, a minor port, a shorter railway runs to Chiclayo. From the Lobos Islands off the coast much guano was formerly taken.

La Libertad, the larger Department following, has two primary ports, the first, Pacasmayo, a short sail from Etén. From Pacasmayo 85 miles of railway lead up country to the towns Guadalupe and Chilete. From Chilete the road should be carried over the Cordillera to the important city of Cajamarca, 50 miles beyond, whither Pizarro marched nearly 400 years ago; but the grades would be difficult and the road awaits the supply of more pressing needs. Another long pier serves the port of Pacasmayo, from which are shipped sugar, rice, fruit, etc. Sixty-six miles farther is the primary port of Salaverry, population 5000.

Trujillo, the capital of the Department, is eight miles distant; beyond is the Chicama Valley, noted for its splendid sugar estates. A railway 75 miles long going up the valley to Ascope, does a large business. An extension planned to the plateau above, 12,900 feet, will pass extensive coal fields at Huanday, and reach copper and silver mines at Queruvilca. A maximum grade of 6¹⁄₂ per cent would make the construction expensive. Another road from the sugar lands is being constructed to the better port, Malabrigo. A little north of Salaverry is the minor port of Huanchaco, which also exports much sugar, though the chief shipment is from Salaverry.

Ancash, the next Department, which is still larger, has five minor ports, one of which, Chimbote, should soon become a primary. For this expectation there are several reasons: first, the harbor, land locked by a long peninsula and several islands, is called the finest on the entire West Coast below Panamá. It has an area of 36 square miles without a rock below its placid surface. Though now with but an ordinary iron pier for lighters, docks approachable by the largest ships could be arranged on an island, which a bridge over a 200 yard channel would easily connect with the main land. There are two other entrances, one half a mile across.

The American capitalist, Henry Meiggs, the prime mover in the construction of the South and Central Peruvian Railways, had the foresight in the early seventies to perceive the great commercial possibilities of this harbor. He planned a city on the shore and began a railway to extend up the Santa River Valley to Huarás, 167 miles. The road bed had been constructed 80 miles, the rails laid 60, when the Chilian war broke out. The invaders, after capturing Chimbote, carried off the rolling stock and supplies and destroyed what else they could. Subsequently the project remained long in abeyance, the road being operated for 35 miles only; but after several recent concessions and delays with little work accomplished, the Government has taken over the line and is pushing forward the extension from the point already attained, La Limeña, 65 miles from Chimbote. Work was begun July, 1919, on a branch line to coal fields near Ancos, 15¹⁄₂ miles, which later will pass near two copper deposits and through Huamachuco and Cajabamba. After the first few miles the main road follows the Santa River, which enters the ocean a few miles north of the harbor.

The Santa has the distinction of being the largest river in Peru flowing into the Pacific Ocean. Rising among the heavily snow covered peaks of the White Cordillera, though nowhere navigable it has a large water supply for irrigation, made use of by the Incas. It could easily be made available for a large district back of Chimbote. At present the railway serves only a few sugar plantations on the lower part of the river’s course, but its further construction will open up immense coal fields, and farther on in the Huailas Valley great mineral deposits of gold, silver, etc., and a fine though limited agricultural district which already has a large population.

The Huailas Valley has on the east the Cordillera Blanca, whose splendid snow capped summits rise to an altitude of 20,000 to 22,000 feet; on the west the Cordillera Negra reaches a height of 17,000 to 18,000 feet; the passes into the valley are above 14,000. The floor of the valley rises from 3000 feet at the north to 10,000 at Huarás and 11,000 at Recuay. Along the way are the considerable towns of Caráz, Yungay, Carhuaz, and Huaráz, capital of the Department, each with populations of from 5000 to 10,000, besides the people at haciendas and at mining centers on either hand. This has been called the richest and most thickly settled portion of Peru. All sub-tropical and temperate productions flourish here at various elevations; the mineral riches may rival the Klondike as the scenic splendor surpasses that of Chamonix. East of Yungay rises the magnificent twin-peaked Huascarán, the first and only ascent of which was made by the author with two Swiss guides, September 2, 1908; the north peak, altitude 21,812 feet, is still, 1921, the highest point in all America yet attained by any North or South American.

The only difficulty in the construction of the railway is where the Santa River breaks through the Black Cordillera to turn towards the coast, the narrow gorge being impracticable even for pedestrians. In this region and beyond are immense coal fields. These, chiefly anthracite and semi-anthracite, therefore non-coking, some people believed worthless, being ignorant that for many purposes hard coal is more valuable than soft. However there are also beds of bituminous. The coal deposits continue in the lateral valleys, where the owners use them merely for their own households. Samples run over 82 per cent carbon. A quarter of a mile from Caráz (population 8000) coal may be mined and put on trucks at $1.50 a ton. The Chuquisaca River from the north joins the Santa just before that breaks through the Cordillera. This Department is very mountainous. Besides the Santa, four rivers descend to the sea, i.e., they do sometimes; for, rising on the west of the Black Range, obviously so called because it has little snow on it, these rivers are often dry, yet they serve to irrigate many sugar plantations. At the mouth of the Santa River north of Chimbote is the village Santa, an occasional port of call for the caletero (not express) boats, which regularly visit several ports below: Samanco, 27 miles of desert from Chimbote, Casma, after 50 miles more, and Huarmey, 55 beyond. Back of Samanco is the Nepeña River Valley with two large sugar plantations; and high in the Black Range, Colquipocro, one of the richest silver mines worked in Peru. Some of the selected ore ran as high as $2000 a ton, and large quantities averaged $200 when silver was 50 cents an ounce. Samanco and Casma are the usual ports for entering the Huailas Valley; Chimbote also serves.

Lima. The Departments of Lima and Ica follow, in which the mountains come closer to the shore than in the greater part of the country, and the rivers except at the extreme south are nearer together. Thus the Departments exhibit much verdure, a larger proportion of the country being devoted to agriculture. A minor port of Lima is Supe, followed by Huacho, of more importance and connected with the capital by rail, 150 miles, passing Ancón, a frequented summer seashore resort.

Callao, the port of Lima and the chief port of Peru, is with its suburbs a little Province all by itself, surrounded by the Department of Lima except on the ocean side.

Cerro Azul is a more southern port in the Department of Lima, serving a very mountainous section, with fertile valleys producing sugar, cotton, vegetables, etc., and in the mountains many minerals.

Ica is an extremely fertile Department, raising very fine grapes and other fruits, sugar cane and cotton; also corn, alfalfa, divi-divi, and ají, a kind of pepper much used in Peru and other countries. Wine making is a very important industry. Minerals exist, but are not much worked except a silver mine.

Ica, the capital, centre of the finest grape country in the Republic, is 46 miles by rail from Pisco, the chief port, and the most important one between Callao and Mollendo. Lomas is a smaller port in the Department. Ica has some good land uncultivated, but needing irrigation.

Arequipa, the last littoral Department, has five minor ports besides the primary port, Mollendo, second in importance in Peru; but the port is a very poor one, no real harbor at all. Chala is a port of call for some steamers, but the rest are very minor: Camaná, at the mouth of the Majes River which comes down from Mt. Coropuna, Quilca, Matarani, and Islay, the last two not far north of Mollendo, and with better harbors. Along here the mountains are farther back and some have much snow, so that several rivers present good possibilities for additional irrigation. Cotton, sugar, and grapes grow in the valleys; corn, potatoes, and cereals higher up. There is a variety of mineral products: the most important, silver from Cailloma; but gold, copper, lead, coal, borax, sulphur, manganese, alum, gypsum, are found, and some of them are exported.

The Southern Railway of Peru, leading up from Mollendo, is an important line which will be referred to later. Back of the coastal bluffs, which rise on irregular slopes 3000 feet or more, is a desert plateau of especial interest, on account of the sand dunes 10-12 feet high which move slowly over it.

Moquegua, a Province south, the last district held by Peru, has a primary port, Ilo, from which a railway 62 miles long extends to its capital, Moquegua. The soil of the Province is especially adapted to grapes and olives, which with wine and oil are the chief exports. Many varieties of minerals are known to exist here in quantity.

The Sierra Region

This, perhaps the best populated of the three sections, comprises seven Departments, some of which run over or down into the montaña, as most of the Coast Departments run up into the sierra.

Cajamarca, bordering on Ecuador, is the first Department at the north, a rather long one, running south back of Piura, Lambayeque, and part of Libertad, which last is also on the south, as in its southern part it extends over the West Cordillera and beyond the Marañon. Cajamarca has that river on the east separating it from Amazonas. Communication with the outside world is poor, the best by way of Pacasmayo. An extension of the railway from this port is hoped for. The highlands favor cattle and sheep breeding; the valleys produce cereals, coffee, and sugar. Of course there are minerals.

Cajamarca, the capital, famed for the seizure and murder of Atahuallpa by Pizarro and the slaughter or dispersion of his army, is an important town and distributing centre, with many industries; leather goods, mining, cotton and woolen cloth, etc.

Huánuco, the next Sierra Department, does not touch Cajamarca. East of Ancash, it has Junín on the south, and Loreto east and north. Traversed by the Central and the East Cordilleras, by the Marañon, Huallaga, and Pachítea Rivers, it has the Ucayali as its eastern boundary. At the northeast corner the Pachítea flows into the Ucayali, both rivers being navigable. The central route from Lima to Iquitos goes down the Pachítea. All kinds of riches are here, but communication is too difficult to make them very valuable at the moment. Quicksilver, coal, iron, and copper are found, gold and silver as a matter of course, agricultural products of great variety.

Huánuco, the capital, with a good climate, is 68 miles from Cerro de Pasco, on the Huallaga River. It is an important place with varied industries including sugar mills.

Junín, south of Huánuco, a very large and rich Department, is east of Ancash and Lima, has Huancavelica south, and Cuzco and Loreto east. It has three important districts, better known than those in the Departments farther north: the mountain knot and range at the west, the plateau, and the montaña section running down to the Ucayali River, which separates it from Loreto. Lake Junín, 36 miles long and 7 wide, altitude 13,322 feet, is the second largest Andean Lake. Near by, occurred the battle of August 6, 1824.

In Junín are the head waters of important rivers: in the northwest corner the lakes which are the source of the Marañon, Santa Ana and others; the Jauja or Mantaro flows south from Lake Junín, uniting with the Apurimac later to form the Ené; the Perené, rising on the montaña side of the mountain far down unites with the Ené to form the Tambo, which soon joins the Urubamba then becoming the Ucayali. The smaller Pichis and Palcazu unite to form the Pachítea of the Department of Huánuco. Junín contains immense mineral wealth; among other mines the famous ones of Cerro de Pasco; large stocks of cattle and more sheep. Cereals, corn, potatoes, and other vegetables and fruits grow in the valleys of the plateau, which has an altitude of 13,000 to 14,000 feet, with a temperature of 22°-65°. In the tropical east are plantations of coca, coffee, cacao, sugar, and fruit.

Cerro de Pasco, the capital, will be referred to later.

Huancavelica, a smaller Department directly south, touches Lima on the west, has Ica west and south, and Ayacucho east. This is a Sierra Department exclusively, all high mountains, plateau, a few alpine lakes, but with several deep cañons in which flow the rivers, at the north the Mantaro. Minerals are the chief wealth. Famous since they were opened in 1566 are the quicksilver mines; but since they were buried years ago by a cave-in not much quicksilver has been extracted till a very recent resumption of activity.

Huancavelica, the capital, is an important mining centre though reached with some difficulty from Huancayo or Ica. Here above 12,000 feet the production of wool might be expected; there are cotton mills also.

Ayacucho, a peculiarly shaped Department twice the size of the preceding, runs to a point on the north between the Mantaro and Apurimac Rivers. It has Huancavelica and Ica on the west, Arequipa on the south and southeast, and Apurimac and Cuzco east. This also is mostly highland, with temperate zone agriculture, cattle and sheep, and with varied mineral riches.

Ayacucho, the capital, is a considerable and important city, but a long way to go from anywhere. Mining and other industries are engaged in.

Apurimac, much smaller, has Ayacucho northwest and southwest, a bit of Arequipa south, and Cuzco southeast and northeast. The Department is highland, but lower than at the north, with great grazing ground and forests, with fertile soil raising temperate and sub-tropical products, and with the inevitable minerals.

Abancay, the capital, is most accessible from Cuzco or from the port of Chala. It is a small city, of some interest.

Cuzco, the largest Sierra Department, with a little of Junín has Ayacucho and Apurimac west, Arequipa south, Puno southeast and east, with Madre de Dios, Loreto, and Brazil on the north. The Apurimac River to which the Urubamba is nearly parallel, forms most of its western boundary, both rivers flowing a little west of north. The upper waters of the Purús, and Madre de Dios flow north, south, and east. Stock raising is carried on and there are minerals, but agriculture is the chief industry. Cuzco is famed for the excellence of its cacao, also for its cocoa and coffee; it has large sugar plantations as well. Though with mountainous highlands, it has much territory lower.

Cuzco, the capital, world famed since its conquest by Pizarro, is beautifully situated at the head of the side-valley of the Huatanay River. Interesting from its historic associations, its massive ruins, and its picturesque charm, it is also of commercial importance.

Puno, the last Department of the sierra, has Madre de Dios on the north, Cuzco, Arequipa, and Moquegua west, Chile and Bolivia south, and Bolivia east. The Department, mostly highland, includes the western part of Lake Titicaca. It contains many minerals, and has a large output of gold. The production of wool, including the alpaca and vicuña, is highly important. Potatoes, barley, etc., are grown.

Puno, the capital, a centre of mineral and woolen activities, is the head of Peruvian navigation on Lake Titicaca and a meeting place of the two tribes or races, the Quichuas and the Aymarás, the latter, residents of northern Bolivia. The town is an important centre of traffic.

The Montaña Region

This region comprising nearly two thirds of Peru embraces the eastern forest country, the eastern slopes of the East Cordillera and at the north the lower slopes of the other ranges. The region has much rain, many large navigable rivers, and dense tropical forests rich in useful plants, fine hard woods, and rubber trees. It has some settlements on the river banks and on higher lands, and in the forests, Indians, some of whom are peaceable and friendly, others who might have been so had they not been badly treated by whites of various nationalities, others still who have never seen the white man and do not wish to. Three of these Departments border on Ecuador, the most western, Amazonas, with Cajamarca on the west, La Libertad south, and San Martín east. The last Department, more than twice the size of Amazonas, has Loreto on the east and south. It is traversed by the Central Cordillera and by the Huallaga River, navigable to the important port of Yurimaguas, but for steamers not much farther. The immense Department Loreto, touching Huánuco and Cuzco on the south, with Brazil on the east, is with Madre de Dios naturally the least known and least populated portion of Peru. It is traversed by the Ucayali, and by the Amazon both above and for some distance below Iquitos, to which port ocean steamers regularly ascend. Madre de Dios, east of Cuzco and north of Puno, has been little explored. A few rubber and mining concessions have been slightly worked. Its future will come with transportation.

CHAPTER XXII
PERU: PORTS AND INTERIOR TRANSPORTATION

From the physical character of Peru, it is evident that inland communication and traffic is of extraordinary difficulty. The countries previously mentioned and most of those to follow have rivers by which access to the interior may be gained. In Colombia the Pacific coast barrier is not half so high, and another way is open from the Caribbean. Venezuela presents several doorways, Ecuador also; but in Peru, entrance by navigable rivers would be to journey over 2000 miles from Pará in Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon, then arriving only at the back door, remote indeed from the busy civilized life at the front. Some few do come in and go out that way, but not many.

Peru’s front is happily 1200-1300 miles long, but then a wall! and in places not one only; back of that another and another; between each two a deep, deep hollow; climbs, up and down, up and down, to gain the fertile montaña; or, in the central section, where it might seem easy going after having surmounted the high wall to the lofty plateau, there are hills if not dales, with few level spots. Do not imagine that a table-land is like a table! The country is rolling where not mountainous; nor is that all. The various rivers that wind about flowing now south now north, southeast and northwest, with branches from any direction, these are not simple little rivers, a few or many feet deep, which require merely an ordinary bridge; but whether deep or shallow they are liable to be and generally are at the bottom of a cañon 300 or 3000 feet deep, the top of which may be a mile or two across. For a railway to descend to such depths and climb up the other side, not once but the many times needful for a road traversing the length of Peru is for a sparsely inhabited country, governmentally poor, quite impossible. Hence the slowness of Peru’s development despite its wonderful riches.

When some years ago the Pan American Railway from New York to Buenos Aires was projected, investigation was made of practicable routes by the United States Government. The way in Ecuador is plain and in Colombia there is little choice; but in Peru the question of highland, low coast, or far interior was to be solved. The coast seemed less desirable as along here one could go by water. Moreover, the Maritime Cordillera for a long distance is so near the sea with so many spurs coming down to the coast, or as in Southern Peru a bluff several hundred or thousand feet high with its feet in the sea is so cut every little way by one of those 58 streams in a very deep cañon, that it was not more inviting than the plateau region above, where the road would be much more serviceable. Plateau was the decision; but for the Great War, money might soon be forthcoming; as it is, long delay is probable before the road is completed. As for inland transportation therefore, it may be said that it is carried on mainly by sea, which is no joke but stern reality; accordingly coast service is well provided.

Coast Service

British, Chilian, Peruvian, formerly German, and now American steamers sail along the coast, some express from Panamá, calling at Callao and Mollendo only; others, express also, call at the other primary ports, Paita, Etén, Pacasmayo, Salaverry, Pisco, and Ilo; still others, caletero, call at the 20 minor ports also. From many of these ports, as we have seen, railways extend some distance into the interior, generally as far as they can go without taking a stiff grade. Beyond the termini and in some cases directly from the ports, freight is carried by mules, burros, or llamas, though in but few places do the latter come down to the sea, their use being confined chiefly to the region of the sierra. In the old Inca days the fleet footed Indians sped over the narrow trails, often carrying heavy burdens. Horses were introduced by the Spaniards; riding is universal, as almost everywhere it is the only means of travel, from the coast to the mountain region and within that section; roads aside from bridle trails are almost non existent. Even in the thickly settled and rich Huailas Valley there was not a wheeled vehicle in 1908; there is no way by which they could be carried in except in pieces. The iron horse, however, within the last half century has begun to make its way.

Chief Port

Callao. Although Peru has other primary ports which should be visited by commercial men, Callao and Lima are the chief centre of commerce for the greater part of the country. Both cities are of course provided with good electric car service, lights, and telephones; they are connected by an electric and a steam railway, the latter, a part of the Central Railway of Peru, which climbs to the interior heights. The double track electric road on a broad boulevard, the most popular connection between the two cities, makes the ride in 28 minutes. The site of the port, Callao, population 35,000, was chosen with discretion, as except for Chimbote it has the best harbor below Panamá. It ranks in traffic as the fourth American port on the entire Pacific, following Seattle, San Francisco, and Valparaiso. Callao has been distinguished as the only port south of Panamá with docks accessible to large ships, though, as the accommodations are inadequate, passing coastal steamers usually anchor half a mile away, employing lighters for cargo; recently, steam launches serve passengers, heavy baggage going in row boats. A floating dry dock receives ships of 8000 tons.

Railways to the Interior

The Central Railway. In spite of the enormous difficulties of making a roadbed up a steep cañon or on the face of a bluff, bridging torrents, and tunneling side buttresses and mountain ranges, two railroads, both monuments of skill and perseverance, climb from the coast to the plateau, the Central, and the Southern Railways of Peru. The first, a standard gauge line from Callao begun in 1870 by the American financier, Henry Meiggs, was in 1876 completed as far as Chicla, 88 miles. On account of troubles resulting from the Chilian war, it did not reach Oroya, long the terminus, till 1893. The road follows up the Rimac Valley, which, however, is so steep and narrow that detours into side valleys are necessary, as into the Verrugas, which is crossed by a bridge 225 feet high, one of 67 bridges on the journey. Many curves, tunnels, and V’s are also needed to gain in 7¹⁄₂ hours, with no more than a 4 per cent grade, an elevation of 15,665 feet at a distance from the sea in a straight line of less than 100 miles. Frequently the floor of the cañon has room only for the rushing stream, and the road passes high up on the slope or cliff, at one point, 575 feet, or through one of the 57 tunnels. Some of the cliffs are more than one third of a mile in perpendicular height. The road is considered in some respects the most wonderful of the world’s railways. A branch 10 miles long from Ticlio to Morococha, reaching an altitude of 15,865 feet, a trifle above that of Mont Blanc, is absolutely the highest railway in the world. At Ticlio, the highest point of the main line, is entered the Galera tunnel, three quarters of a mile long, which cuts through the continental divide. The road then descends to Oroya, altitude 12,178 feet. In taking the trip for pleasure or business one not absolutely sure of the soundness of his heart should have it examined, or at least should stop over two days at Matucana, 7788 feet, where there is a fairly comfortable hotel. Any one is liable to suffer somewhat from soroche, which may be avoided by the stop-over. In general persons of good constitution, not too full blooded, will be troubled only by a headache, perhaps accompanied by nausea, and those who are careful to avoid rapid walking or over exertion of any kind for a day or two after arrival above, and who do not overeat before setting out on the journey or afterwards may suffer no inconvenience whatever. No liquor of any kind should be used except in collapse from heart failure. Ammonia is desirable in case of headache.

From Oroya, terminus of the direct line, there are branches to the north and south over the plateau. To reach the montaña interior, which is more accessible here than from any other point in Peru, one may go by automobile over another range a thousand feet above, and beyond this, down, down, down into the montaña. Tarma at 10,000 feet has a delightful climate, and here are trees, perhaps the first seen in Peru, growing as it were of their own accord. The picturesque cañon below is lined with verdure, here and there are entrances to side valleys. Tunnels and romantic swinging bridges formerly lent variety to the ride. The new automobile road opens up a rich and delightfully attractive country. La Merced, altitude 3000 feet, is quite a little town with a pleasant summer climate.

A short distance farther is the Perené, a coffee plantation, at 2500 feet, belonging to the Peruvian Corporation. The estate of 5,000,000 acres is not half cultivated, though 1¹⁄₂ million coffee trees had been planted in 1903. At this altitude the country is still in the foothills of the Andes with steep slopes on every hand, a narrow way only extending along the river bank. The Perené is a considerable stream easily navigable, an affluent of the Tambo, which flows into the Ucayali; but the stream goes south a long distance around, and through a region inhabited by savage Indians. It is therefore not used. The Chunchi Indians living close by are fine looking people and friendly, sometimes working on the plantation. This plantation is on the main and mail route from Lima to Iquitos, capital of Loreto, to which with good luck a journey may be made in 15 days. Seven days are spent between Oroya and Puerto Jessup, then one in canoe to Puerto Bermudez, and 5 or 6 in steam launch to Iquitos, where a steamer may be taken to Manaos, Pará, or New York.

A branch railway line, American owned, built by the Cerro de Pasco Copper Company, extends north from Oroya to Cerro de Pasco, about 90 miles over a hilly country, past Lake Junín. Along the way many Quichua Indians are seen, the chief population of the plateau region. Cerro de Pasco, the terminus of the road from Oroya, is a town of 15,000 population at an altitude of 14,300 feet. A branch railway leads to Goyllarisquisga, 26 miles, another to Quishuarcancha, 11 miles, to their coal properties.

Another branch or a continuation of the Central Railway runs south on the plateau in the valley of the Jauja River past a city of that name, population 3000, altitude 11,050 feet, a resort for consumptives for whom the coast is too damp. Seventy-eight miles from Oroya at Huancayo, population 6000, the road halted some years, but lately building has recommenced and the road is probably open some miles farther. Construction is proceeding in the direction of Ayacucho to continue from there to Cuzco. By the time this is accomplished a long stretch of the Pan American Road will be completed, probably from the Callejón de Huailas to Lake Titicaca, but the crossing of three cañons, one 3000 feet deep, makes this an expensive job.

The Southern Railway of Peru, also planned and partly constructed by Henry Meiggs before he commenced the Central, begins at the port of Mollendo; after a few miles along the beach it climbs the high bluff on the side of projecting buttresses, winding about till it reaches the edge of the desert plateau 3000 feet above. Then it proceeds on the almost imperceptibly inclined desert, presently along the edge of the Vitor Valley, 107 miles, to the beautifully situated Arequipa, population 50,000, altitude 7550 feet.

The city is on the lower slope of El Misti, partly in the valley of the Chili River which flows between Misti, 19,200 feet, and Chachani a little higher. Arequipa has a fine cathedral, and cultured society, but poor hotels. A good one, opened prematurely some years ago, unfortunately failed; it would be a great success now. In the crater of Misti are pure sulphur crystals, with some of which I once filled my pocket; but other sources are more accessible. Much business is transacted in the city, this being the centre of commerce for Southern Peru, an immense district with many towns and mining centres on and off the railroad. At least one night must be spent here on the way up, and several days are desirable both for business and to become proof against soroche. The city is the site of the machine shops for the railway, which with 526 miles of track is the longest in the Republic. From Vitor between Mollendo and Arequipa an automobile road is to be constructed to the Majes Valley and Chuquibamba.

From Arequipa there are semi- or tri-weekly trains to Cuzco and Puno. The road winds around the desert slopes of Chachani to the higher land beyond. From the divide, 14,688 feet, the descent is gradual to Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca, 219 miles from Arequipa.

At Juliaca, 30 miles before Puno, the line branches north towards Cuzco, 210 miles, a journey of a day and a half. Sleeping cars run from Arequipa. The highest point on the north division is 14,153 feet. Cuzco itself is at an altitude of 11,445 feet. The place, almost surrounded by hills, has a more genial climate than might be expected at this altitude. The appearance of the country is very different from that near Cerro de Pasco with more green and a milder atmosphere. Cuzco is said once to have had a population of 400,000, instead of the present 30,000. Some progress has been made since railway connection was established in 1908; a decent hotel, the Pullman, has superseded the apologies for one then available. The population is chiefly Indian, and many come in from the surrounding country to the markets. The Department, a very rich but undeveloped section, is on the border where Quichuas and Aymarás mingle.

From the port of Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, altitude 12,500 feet, there is, in connection with the railway, steamboat service (an all night journey) to Guaqui, at the south end of the lake. Here is railroad connection for La Paz, a three hours ride, all under the management of the Peruvian Corporation, a British company which controls also the Central Railway and most of the short lines from the various ports; the Corporation has further among other concessions one for the export of guano.

Proposed Railway Extension

It is evident that the railways of this great country which nowhere touch the vast montaña region and which leave destitute most of the towns of the sierra district, are totally inadequate for its development. However delightful the climate or rich the country in agricultural or mineral resources, few persons in the present age will settle in regions remote from cities in time if not in distance, and where the interchange of products is almost impossible for lack of means of transportation. The leaders of the Government are well aware of this fact and are doing their utmost to promote railway development, both through their own initiative and by their willingness to grant favorable terms and, to some extent, guaranteed concessions to foreign capitalists. The importance of connecting the coast and sierra cities, and these with the Amazon Basin and river transportation to the Atlantic is perfectly apparent. The ideal is for three or four railways serving different sections to extend from coast ports up over the mountains down to the navigable waters of the Amazon affluents, and that such roads should be connected by a north and south line in the sierra country as a part of the great Pan American system long ago planned. Branches would diverge from all of these lines, thus opening up large mineral deposits for operation, and the rich agricultural lands of the montaña for settlement and commerce.

For a long time several routes have been under discussion and some concessions have been granted, which mismanagement or the difficulty of getting capitalists to invest in so remote a field have rendered abortive. Therefore there is still discussion; and opportunities for construction are open.

Beginning at the north the first cross line proposed is that in the Department Piura, continuing the road from the good port of Paita to Puerto Molendez, Calantura, or Limón, on the Marañon River below the Pongo de Manserriche. This plan has the great advantage of crossing the Andes at its lowest point, 6600 feet. An important consideration is that it would make practicable the export from Paita of rubber which is now carried from Iquitos by way of the Amazon and Pará; the far shorter journey by sea from Paita to New York, easily made within ten days, would more than counterbalance the rail freight from the river port 400 miles to Paita. It would surely be a better route for business men and offers other advantages; among these access to coal and iron mines en route.

Another transcontinental route proposed is from some point connected with the Central Railway which has already surmounted the divide. A route on which much money has been spent for engineering investigation, surveys, and otherwise is from Cerro de Pasco or Goyllarisquisga to Pucalpa or some other point on the Ucayali. This central road for political reasons seems extremely desirable. It would open up the fine grazing lands of the Pampa Sacramento, and rich alluvial gold deposits in or on several streams, as well as the forest and rubber country. Another suggestion is to continue the road directly east from Oroya down to the Perené River and to Puerto Wertheman; a better may be to build 175 miles from Matahuasi, a station on the Oroya-Huancayo Railway, to Jesus Marie on the Ené River near the mouth of the Pangoa, where 12 feet of water would permit of commerce by large steamers by way of the Tambo and Ucayali.

One important cross route would naturally be by the Southern Railway, from a point on the Cuzco branch, Tirapata, Urcos, or Cuzco, the earlier plans looking to a connection with the Madre de Dios River. But as this route would necessitate a long roundabout journey, as well as a passage through Bolivia and freightage on the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, the Government has recently undertaken for itself a line from Cuzco to Santa Ana on the Urubamba, by which the journey is greatly shortened and will be wholly within the Republic as far as Brazil, following down the Urubamba and Ucayali to the Amazon and Iquitos. The drawback to this route is that only very light draught steamers can come up to Santa Ana at any season of the year.

Lines quoted as under construction by the Peruvian Government in 1919 are that from Chimbote up the Huailas Valley to Recuay, already referred to, which when completed will be immediately profitable, the continuation of the road from Huancayo to Cuzco, now open 30 miles from the former city; and the Cuzco to Santa Ana just mentioned. A short line recently opened from Lima to Lurín, crossing the Pachacamac River, brings two fertile valleys with their fruit and vegetables into close connection with the capital. Lurín is but 16 miles from the suburb Chorillos, which for some years has had railway service. The ancient pre-Inca ruins at Pachacamac are now easily accessible.

The Longitudinal or Pan American Railway, crossing all the others, would come in at the north from Cuenca and Loja in Ecuador, continuing to Huancabamba, Jaen, and Cajamarca in that Department, thence down the valley to the Santa River, there joining the railway to Recuay, which will be prolonged to Goyllarisquisga. By this time the connection will be complete to Cuzco, and so to La Paz, La Quiaca, and Buenos Aires.

CHAPTER XXIII
PERU: RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES

Agriculture

While for centuries Peru has been celebrated as a land of marvelous mineral riches, especially of gold and silver, nevertheless, in spite of her desert shore, her bleak table-land, and her undeveloped montaña, like California, her chief wealth is in her agriculture. What the figures say about the exports is easily ascertainable; but though corroborating this statement they do not tell all the story, since most of the mineral production is exported, while the greater part of the agricultural stays at home. Of the latter, sugar is the leading product.

Sugar grows along the coast and, where opportunity offers, up to a height of 4500 feet; in the montaña to a height of 6000 feet. At present most of it is raised near the coast. The Chicama Valley, famed for its splendid estates, produces more sugar than the entire Island of Porto Rico, and this of the finest quality. In the temperate, equable climate, the cane matures early and may be cut all the year around. It is unusually rich in sucrose. Some estates are 15-20 miles square, producing 15,000-30,000 tons each; 50-60 tons of cane to the acre is quite usual. The cane is cut and ground from 18 to 24 months after planting, and being cut throughout the year instead of during four or five months only, the same amount of work may be done with far less machinery and fewer laborers. In places a two months suspension is made, when the river is full, to attend to irrigation and to clean or repair machinery, etc.

The cane has more than 14 per cent sucrose, often 16 or 17 per cent. The returns have nowhere been surpassed; the production to the acre is double that of Cuba, where the average is 23-24 tons, in Peru 45-50 tons. At Cartavio, an estate of 29,000 acres in the Chicama Valley, they once cut 79.8 long tons of cane per acre from a field of 85 acres. This had 15.24 per cent sucrose and gave 12 tons of sugar an acre, a probable record. The grinding capacity is 1000 metric tons in 23 hours. In 1917 they ground 240,000 tons making 34,000 tons of sugar, mostly white granulated. The Casa Grande in the same valley, said to be the largest estate in the world, has a population of 11,000. Churches, schools, hospitals, and “movies” are provided for the work people, and the luxuries of modern life for owners and superintendents. In the montaña sugar cane is said to grow to a height of 30 feet and once planted to persist for a century. One writer speaks of two or three crops from one planting, but nine years without replanting is not unusual on the coast.

In the year 1915-16, 100,000 tons were exported from Salaverry, more the year following; half as much from the smaller port of Huanchaco near by. Production in Peru reached 400,000 tons in 1918. The plantation Tambo Real, on the Santa River near Chimbote, was recently sold for $1,750,000. Just back of the port is plenty of good sugar land, now desert but easily irrigable. As the nitrates have never been washed out of the land by rain, the soil is of extraordinary fertility; with irrigation the cane receives the precise amount of water required and at the right season. Back of Samanco are two large sugar estates, one belonging to the British Sugar Company, which has a larger at Cañete in the south, producing long ago 30,000 tons a year. One estate had years ago 22 miles of tramway which was to be increased. In some places small farmers owning or renting land sell their cane to sugar mills. Most of the estates have the best of machinery. In 1911 $100,000 worth of sugar machinery was imported into one Department, Lambayeque. Labor is cheaper than in Cuba, formerly 60 cents a day, but with housing and other perquisites. Much sugar has been exported to Chile; recently to Europe and the United States. Some years ago sugar could be sold at a port at a profit for 1.5 cents a pound, more recently at 2.5 cents. There is still a field for investment in desert land, suitable for those with sufficient capital to arrange for irrigation. About 600,000 acres are now devoted to sugar.

Cotton. Native to the country is cotton, and Peru has its own special variety, Gossypium Peruvianum. It is so soft and fine that it is called vegetable wool, and it is much used for weaving underwear, stockings, etc., with wool, which it even improves, as the cloth is less liable to shrinkage than all wool. This variety grows to a height of 10-16 feet, giving a first small crop in eight months, but not reaching its best until the sixth year. It holds out well through drought, requiring but one irrigation yearly. The trees are planted 15 feet apart, the interspace being occupied with vegetables and corn. No ploughing is necessary and two crops a year are obtained. With the names full rough and moderate rough it is mixed with wool for textile manufacture. Piura is its special habitat, but it grows well in Ica at the south.

The Egyptian, the Sea Island, or the ordinary American are preferred by some growers on account of their earlier development. The Egyptian is cultivated in Ica from the shore to 60 miles inland, also in Lima; the Sea Island and the Peruvian Mitafifi, similar to the Egyptian, near Huacho and Supe; the smooth cotton from ordinary American seed anywhere. The Egyptian, also called Upland, grows to about four feet, yielding two or three years, beginning six months after sowing. It needs several waterings, but has an advantage in being free from weevil blight. This and the ordinary American are the most popular varieties. Peru is twelfth among world producers, needing only more irrigated land for greatly increased production. There is water enough but labor and capital have been wanting. All conditions are favorable as in Egypt. The length of the various cotton fibres is given as: Sea Island, 1.61 inches; Egyptian, 1.41; Peruvian, 1.30; Brazilian, 1.17; American upland, 1.02; Indian, 0.8.

Coffee. An important product is coffee, the best said to be grown in the sierra region; but the finest I ever drank was raised on a small plantation back of Samanco, where it was roasted, ground, and made within the hour, of course pulverized and dripped as universally in South America. In the deep valleys at the east also, excellent coffee is grown: in Puno, in the Chanchamayo and the Perené valleys, called the montaña by the sierra people, in Huánuco farther north, in the Paucartambo valley of Cuzco south, as well as in the Pacasmayo and other coast sections. Five hundred plants are set to the acre, 800 in the Perené, which produce each 2 pounds annually. Even with a low price for coffee its production is profitable there, in spite of the one time $60 a ton freight rate to Callao; large profits are made at good prices. After supplying home consumption there is a considerable export.

Cacao. The production of cacao, which grows wild in the montaña, should be greatly increased. The Department of Cuzco produces a particularly fine article with exquisite taste and aroma, which brings a higher price than that of Brazil or Ecuador, though little known outside of the country. In the Perené Valley a plantation of 200,000 trees has been set out. Vast tracts in the Departments of Amazonas and San Martín and in the Province of Jaen are also suited to its growth.

Coca. The culture of coca is important, but more limited as to future development since its medicinal use should not be greatly increased and its general use not at all. The plant is a shrub, usually six feet high, cultivated in the districts of Otuzco (the most important) and Huamachuco (Libertad), Huanta (Ayacucho), Cuzco, and Huánuco. It grows best in valleys of 3000 to 7000 feet altitude, where the temperature varies from 60° to 85°, in clayey but not marshy ground, with iron but no salt. It needs frequent rains and humidity. Three or four crops may be picked annually, the first in 18 months; the yield continues 40 years. Care is needed in picking the leaves and in drying. A great quantity is consumed by the Indians, and some is exported to Europe and the United States, both as dried leaves for making wines, tonics, etc., and for the extraction of alkaloid; also as cocaine for the making of which over 20 small factories exist in Peru. Chewing coca leaves is of great service on the plateau for necessary and unusual exertion, but injurious and stupefying when its use is continuous.

Rice is grown in the north in Lambayeque and in the Pacasmayo Valley of Libertad. With one flooding and little ploughing the crops are produced annually, 46,000 tons in 1917. A little is exported but more is imported. The two varieties grown are Carolina and Jamaica. The straw is not utilized.

Fruits of various kinds may be grown in all the coast valleys, but south of Lima the culture, especially of grapes, is more advanced. Even in poor years it is said that the grape crop is superior to the European average; but too little attention has been paid to improving and extending the industry. The vineyards are small and combined with the other interests of a hacienda. The grapes are grown on stocks about eight feet apart, supported first by canes, later by trellises on adobe columns. Nine hundred gallons of wine an acre is an average yield. Italia and Abilla are cultivated for white wines, Quebranta, Moscatel, and others for red; the former of these two being most prolific and generally grown. A pink Italia is a fine table fruit. Wines cheap and good are manufactured to the amount of 2,200,000 gallons yearly, and 770,000 gallons of pisco, made from white grapes, also quantities of alcohol. The sugar of the montaña is used to make aguardiente or rum; in several coast districts a finer quality is made from grapes and is probably what in some sections is called pisco.

Peru is rich in the variety of fruit possibilities, but grapes and olives are the only ones cultivated in a large way, with a view to commercial profit. Olives grown in the south from imported trees are said to excel those of Spain or California. About 70,000 pounds are exported. The yield of oil is about 30 per cent; not enough is made for home consumption. Large possibilities exist in this direction. Other fruits grown are of course oranges, bananas, melons, pomegranates, paltas, or aguacates, or as we call them, alligator pears, fine as properly eaten, the half fruit with salad dressing inside; chirimoias, when in perfection nothing better; strawberries nearly all the year around at Lima, more like the wild fruit with delicate flavor; prickly pears, peanuts, pears, cherries, etc.

Vegetables in great variety are raised, some like ours, others never before met with. Potatoes in many varieties grow up to an altitude of 13,000 feet or more. The wild bitter tuber from which the varieties were probably developed still grows wild. Enock says the yellow potato (not sweet) is unrivalled for excellence, but I saw none superior to the best of our white. Other tubers cultivated are the yam (three crops a year), manioc, and others.

Maize. The best maize in the world, says Vivian, is grown in Peru; but I am sure that he never ate any sweet corn in Rhode Island. Grown in all parts of the country up to 11,500 feet, it is native, like potatoes and cotton, and is one of the main stays of the country. Maize and potatoes are the chief foods of the Indians. Parched corn is much eaten on the plateau; it is most useful where bread is not to be had, and often is to be preferred. Toasted maize is called cancha. Three, sometimes four, crops are had annually. Food for man and beast, the stalks used for fodder, it is all consumed in the country. That grown near Cuzco is said to be of the finest quality, with grains the size of large beans, a very thin pellicle, and very farinaceous. One district in Lima produces 10,000 tons a year.

Cereals are raised, wheat, barley, and oats, from 5000 to 11,500 feet. Wheat formerly grown on the coast is now seen on the uplands, but large importations of wheat and flour are made. Barley grows to a greater height, 12,000 feet or more and is much used for animal fodder, for mules and horses, taking the place of oats, which are not much cultivated. Alfalfa, much better for fodder than barley, is largely used, growing in sheltered places up to 12,000 feet, about the same as maize. A specialty of Peru and Bolivia is quinua, which is very prolific and grows freely in poor soil from 9000 up to 13,500 feet. It would be well if it were widely cultivated in other countries. Suitable conditions could be found in many places not necessarily at such altitudes. For many purposes it seems preferable to corn meal. It may be eaten raw with sugar or water or cooked as mush; it is called a tonic for soroche. The grains are round, about the size of mustard seed.

Tobacco is raised to a small extent, especially in Tumbes and adjoining districts. It is called of superior quality, and is preferred by some Peruvians to the imported, but it is too strong and coarse for many; the upper class Peruvians generally prefer Havanas. Perhaps 1000 tons are produced, some of which is exported to Bolivia, Chile, and Brazil. The Government has a monopoly of its sale, regulating price and profits of native and imported both, and owning the cigarette factories.

Ramie grass and haricot beans produce each four crops a year, flax and hemp, two crops; the castor oil plant is cultivated, and at the south the mulberry with the silk-worm.

Forestry

Forest products except rubber have received little attention, although the export of tagua, vegetable ivory, has greatly increased within the last ten years. The palm grows wild in the montaña. The nuts are picked up by the Indians and carried to Iquitos, thence sent to Europe. They are also used in the forest for curing rubber, the only industry of much importance in this section.

Rubber for years has been exported in considerable quantities, at first collected from districts on the tributaries of the Marañon, later from those of the Ucayali. Earlier the rubber gatherers called caucheros cut down the caucho trees, a hole in the ground having been previously prepared to receive the milk, which was then coagulated by a solution of soap with the juice of a native plant called vetilla. This method of cutting down the trees, which still has some vogue in other countries, is now forbidden in Peru. The caucho here averages 100 pounds to a tree. It was exported in planks or cakes weighing 80 to 100 pounds each. The jebe, rubber of the finest quality passing for the best Pará fine, comes from the hevea brasiliensis or other species of hevea. These trees are found lower down than the castilloa elastica (from which comes the caucho) at an altitude of about 300 feet, where it grows to a height of 60 to 70 feet. By tapping the hevea, about 20 pounds yearly of rubber is obtained. Peru’s rubber export 1908-12 averaged 4¹⁄₂-5¹⁄₂ million pounds worth 20 to 30 million dollars; but the lowering of price due to the Ceylon plantations, and perhaps the discovery of atrocities practiced upon the Indians in some quarters greatly diminished the export for some years. It seems to be reviving. In 1916 $3,400,000 worth was exported. Better regulations have been made and the possibility of arranging a system of plantations is discussed. Nearly all the rubber is exported from Iquitos; but some from the Madre de Dios section, the Inambari, and the Urubamba goes out by way of Mollendo. The export duty of Peru, 8 per cent, has been much less than that of Brazil.

Other forest products, which now receive little attention, include all kinds of valuable timbers, medicinal plants, dye woods, etc., usual in a tropical forest.

Stock Raising

Cattle. The cattle industry is one of large importance, pasturage beginning in the foot-hills of the coast, and going up to 13,000 feet or more. The large ranches are in the sierra, some having 20,000 cattle and 500,000 sheep. Cattle are raised in Cajamarca, Junín, Ayacucho, Cuzco, and Puno. The beef is apt to be tough, badly cut, and is better boiled than roasted. Cross breeding with Argentine or other stock would improve it greatly, and attention is being paid to the matter. The pasture lands are called excellent. Hides are quite largely exported and cattle are imported from Argentina and Chile, chiefly for slaughter, a few for stock. Mutton is largely eaten in the sierra.

Wool is an important export, likely to increase, for the plateau affords ample space, with good wild grasses. The native sheep have rather long legs and a rough scanty fleece; crossed with merinos they give more wool. Good stock was brought from Punta Arenas some years ago with an experienced manager, and near Lake Junín a big ranch has been developing on 130 square miles. There is no finer country for sheep raising than the high valleys of the plateau. Alpacas, vicuñas and llamas also afford wool, the first two of much greater value. The vicuña wool is the finest, but there are so few of the animals that the export is small. That of alpaca, however, is greater than that of wool, at least in value. The larger part of the world’s supply of the genuine article comes from the Peruvian and Bolivian plateau. The llama, the great burden bearer, has a heavy but coarse fleece, yet some of it is exported. There are more of these three animals in Bolivia. The Indians are expert in their care. The guanaco is a larger animal, somewhat similar, which has never been domesticated, and is hunted by the Indians for food. The chinchilla, and the viscacha, the Peruvian hare, are hunted for their skins. Many pigs are raised and lard is exported.

Horses. The horses are rather small, but are very fine saddle animals. Some have five distinct gaits. I found them more sure-footed than mules, going up and down veritable rock stairways with ease. They are to some extent originally of Arabian stock.

Fish of the finest quality of 40 or more varieties and in great abundance are found off the coast; large lobsters, scallops, the corbina, cod, sole, smelt, mackerel, and many others are caught.

Guano. There are seals on the islands and an enormous number of sea-birds, which have made the great deposits of guano on the islands. As there was no rain the deposits have been preserved for centuries without loss of the nitrogen of which there is 14 per cent. The islands occur singly or in groups along the coast, some far out beyond the track of the steamers. All are barren and uninhabited. The Chincha Islands had enormous deposits now exhausted. There has been much waste, and deposits have been removed so ruthlessly as to disturb the birds; but now there are careful regulations. Agreement was made some years ago with the Peruvian Corporation (British) by which they were allotted 2,000,000 tons of the guano; of this they have had more than half; operations have recently been restricted and few shipments made.

Mining

The mine fields of Peru, once famous for their production of gold and silver, never wholly neglected, were for a time less vigorously worked. In the days of the Spanish colonists gold and silver were the chief objects of acquisition, but lately these metals have seemed less fashionable than copper. The variety in Peru’s wealth in minerals is shown to some extent by a list of her production in 1917 in millions of pounds in round numbers: copper, 84; copper matte, 4.4; copper ore, 16.5; vanadium, 7; lead ore, 7.5; antimony ore, 3.75; silver ore, 1.76; tungsten, 1. Smaller quantities of other ores were produced: gold, 2000 pounds; sulphur, 120,000; metallic silver, 8000; silver concentrates, 700,000; precipitated silver, 10,000; lead bullion, 250,000; lead concentrates, 650,000; zinc ores, 640,000; lead slag, 177,000; copper cement, 145,000; molybdenum, 12,000; gold ores, 30,500. Many other minerals exist, not exported in large enough quantities to have been given in this list.

Copper. Americans were slow to become interested in mining investments in South America as in commercial trade, but when assured of the success of the pioneer enterprise inaugurated at Cerro de Pasco by New York capitalists about 1900, others followed, and large sums have now been invested in several Republics. Silver was discovered at Cerro de Pasco in 1630 and $200,000,000 were produced in one century. Four hundred and fifty million ounces were obtained by hand labor, the ore being carried by llamas to primitive smelters. Little interest was taken in copper; only ore with 25-50 per cent of the metal was formerly exported. Here at Cerro, where is located, some say, the richest copper deposit in the world, the titanic forces of nature cast upward a wonderful mass of material, gold, silver, copper, etc. Here are great open pits several hundred feet deep, worked for centuries for silver.

The Cerro de Pasco Company has spent about $30,000,000 in acquiring properties here and at Morococha, in constructing smelters, railways, buildings for employees, and in developing the properties, from which handsome returns are now obtained. The property of the Cerro de Pasco Mining Company consists of 730 mining claims and 108 coal mining claims. The reserves exceed 3,000,000 tons of copper ore, one estimate is 75,000,000. Nearly every claim carries ore with gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and cobalt. High silver values exist to 100 feet deep, sometimes running to thousands of ounces a ton, deeper are silver copper ores, and lower still little silver and more copper. The old open mines are 100-300 feet deep. The mines are very wet, especially below 400 feet. A drainage canal begun by Meiggs in 1877 was completed in 1907. The new workings include five shafts and two tunnels of two miles each. The shafts have openings at four levels, the bottom 410 feet. Waste is used for filling, as timber is dear. The smelter has five blast furnaces, each running 300 tons daily. A converter is in another building. A hydro-electric plant completed in 1913 cost $1,000,000. There is a 10 mile ditch and pipe line with one 750 foot fall and a second of 200 feet. The transmission line, 70 miles, serves Morococha and Pasco. There is a coke plant near the smelter and a brick plant of great value. The coal mines are at Goyllarisquisga and Quishuarcancha, 21 and 11 miles respectively. The coal is not very good, averaging 35 per cent carbon, but answers the purpose.

The Corporation owns 12 mines at Morococha and rents others. The deepest shaft is 750 feet. Several drainage tunnels are required. The production, 12,000 tons a month, was expected to be increased to 16,000. The ore of the several mines runs 5, 14, 15, and in one mine 20 per cent copper continuously, the 14 per cent with 14-70 ounces of silver per ton. The ore averages 7 per cent copper and 10 ounces silver. The mines have produced 20,000,000 pounds of copper a year, one third of the de Pasco Company’s output. Morococha is ten miles from Ticlio, the highest point on the main line of the Central Railway; the ore is sent to a smelter at Casapalca, altitude 13,600 feet, ten miles farther down.

The property at Casapalca also is controlled by the Cerro de Pasco Company. In one mine there, a 5000 foot adit cuts the vein 2500 feet below the outcrop; other adits are higher. The ore is sent to the smelter by an aerial tram. The output is 2500 tons a month, two per cent copper, and 40 ounces silver. The Casapalca smelter has three blast furnaces and four barrel type converters. The flue dust is briquetted and returned. It does custom work for independent miners, and in 1916 treated 175,000 dry tons, producing nearly 20,000,000 pounds of fine copper, 3,000,000 ounces of silver, and 3587 of gold; the capacity is now increased 50 per cent. A new smelter has been erected at Yauli by the Company. The Cerro de Pasco property is said to be the most costly ever developed; the ores are refractory. With the cost production eight cents a pound on an output of over 70,000,000 tons a year, $4.20 a share is earned on 14 cent copper, double on 20 cent copper. The Corporation’s income in 1916 was $3,676,000, about 12 per cent on the investment; about 8 per cent was paid in dividends, not an undue amount on what was considered by many a very large risk.

Another great copper property, also owned by Americans, is at Yauricocha, about 50 miles south of Yauli, and west of the Oroya-Huancayo Railway. Four hundred and fifty thousand tons averaging 16 per cent copper and 2¹⁄₂ ounces of silver per ton, five per cent of the probable ore in sight, are now ready for stoping. The smelter and blast furnace have an output of 15-18 tons of blister copper daily. Native labor of fair quality may be obtained at one fifth of the cost in the United States, while the ore is said to be six times as rich as most of that in the West. Considerable water power is available. An automobile road has been constructed from the station Pachacayo 60 miles to the mine.

There are other rich copper deposits in Peru, in Huancavelica, Cuzco, Arequipa, Ica, Apurimac, Junín, Ancash, Cajamarca; but as yet none of them is in full production. Ferrobamba in the Department of Cuzco, 45 miles west of the city, at an altitude of 13,000 feet, is one of the largest properties, with 207 claims over 225 acres. The concession includes water rights; 120,000 horse power is available. The ore can be worked by steam shovels. One field is estimated to contain 12,000,000 tons of ore, 6 per cent copper, 3 ounces silver and 9 grams gold. Its inaccessibility has so far prevented extensive operations. The Anaconda Copper Company owns a copper property in the Department of Arequipa. Copper matte is exported from Queruvilca, Otuzco, Santiago de Chuco, and Cajabamba.

Coal, contrary to earlier supposition, is now known to be widespread in Peru. The astonishing figures of 6¹⁄₄ billion tons have recently been given as the estimated supply, over 4 billion of these in Tumbes, a quantity hitherto unsuspected, perhaps unverified. However, coal deposits are certainly scattered along the great Andes Range and in the foothills, mainly in the central and northern sections. Within 100 miles of the coast are millions of tons of anthracite coal near Cupisnique and Huayday; millions more back of Chimbote and along the Huailas Valley, anthracite, semi-anthracite, and bituminous with many veins 4¹⁄₂-13 feet thick. Higher in the plateau region are deposits of soft coal near Oyón, Cerro de Pasco, and at Jatunhuasi. The de Pasco coal, 35 per cent carbon, must be washed before coking in the smelter. Forty per cent of the material is rejected. The best coal is used on the Railway. It costs $2.92 at the mine. The Company has no more than is needed for their smelters and railway. Better coal is found at Jatunhuasi 30 miles from Pachacayo, on the road to the copper mines at Yauricocha, the same company owning both. This coal, 45 per cent carbon, makes better coke which now sells at $25 a ton at Pachacayo, previously at $40. This deposit, estimated at 40,000,000 tons, is said to be the largest known in Peru of high grade coking coal, and the only one capable of large scale mining without pumping.

At Paracas in the Department of Ica are veins near the sea. Capital for working the coal mines has not hitherto been available; and land transport a few miles by llamas has been more expensive than carriage by sea a few thousand. The need is imperative; and foreign capitalists should and no doubt soon will aid in the development of these rich resources. The annual production is now estimated as 400,000 tons.

Gold and silver are always interesting, and there is still plenty in Peru. In 1916 about $1,200,000 worth of gold was mined, though accurate statistics are impossible, on account of the difficulty of estimating the quantity got out by the Indians. A Peruvian engineer estimates the product from the Inambari River through their primitive methods as $100,000 yearly. They build a floor in the river, and the next season wash out the gold sand in the crevices. There are auriferous deposits in Puno and Cuzco; both veins and placers at Sandia and Carabaya, and at Quispicanchis and Paucartambo. Gold coinage in 1918 amounted to nearly $3,000,000. The Aporama Goldfields property near the Hauri Hauri River at Sandia, Puno, has placer deposits covering 1277 acres. It was just reaching production stage when the War opened and interfered. The New Chuquitambo Company has 142 acres in the Cerro de Pasco Province. The Inca Mining Company, American, has the Santo Domingo Mines on the Inambari River, now in the Madre de Dios Department. From Tirapata on the Juliaca-Cuzco Railway, there is a wagon road for some miles, then a mule trail over the Aricoma Pass, 16,500 feet, and down to an altitude of 7000 feet. Even with the difficulties attending the transportation of machinery and supplies $8,000,000 have been produced without exhausting the deposit. The Cochasayhuas mine in Cotabambas yields $20,000 a month. Seventy per cent of the gold production is said to come from Puno.

Silver. Of silver mines the most important is reported to be that of the Anglo-French Company near the port of Huarmey. Dividends have averaged from 20 to 25 per cent per annum. Possibly rivalling this, are mines farther south at an altitude up to 16,500 feet, the reduction works at 15,200 feet in the Cerro Quespesisa, 120 miles back of Pisco. Less favorably located, but one of the most productive districts in Peru, in the last 50 years it has yielded 6,000,000 ounces of silver with crude processes and a loss of over 25 per cent. The fuel used is taquia (llama dung) of which 1500 tons a year are burned. The temperature in the middle of the day is 45°. At that altitude there is no great difference in the seasons in the torrid zone. Supplies are brought from Pisco, a four and a half days’ journey.

The Morococha mines produced in 1916 (estimated) 1,500,000 ounces. The selected ore sent from Colquipocro to a Liverpool smelter averaged for some years $200 a ton, while the thousands of tons on the dump run $80 a ton. Silver is usually found with either copper or lead, in Peru oftener with the latter, while gold is in veins of ferruginous quartz, generally with other metals as silver and copper, as well as in sand, alluvial deposits, and in nuggets. Other silver mines operated are in Cajamarca, Ancash, at Yauli near Oroya, at Cailloma in Arequipa 100 miles north of Sumbay, and elsewhere.

Vanadium is found near Cerro de Pasco, the property of Americans. From 70 to 80 per cent of the world’s supply is believed to be in Peru, the second largest stock in Colorado. It is of great value for certain purposes in steel construction. The Peruvian ore, roasted before shipping, contains 25 per cent of vanadium. Three thousand five hundred tons were exported in 1918.

Quicksilver. In the old mines of Huancavelica there is resumption of work through the activity of Señor Fernandini, a prominent Peruvian mine owner who has a smelter near that of Cerro de Pasco. He has been clearing out old tunnels, and driving new ones across, to cut the ores 700 feet below the old surface workings. A hydro-electric plant is on trial for the furnaces. The mines are high on the mountain above the town Huancavelica. The ore is a bright red cinnabar, mercury sulphide, impregnating clean sandstone uniformly, or along planes or fractures.

Other minerals exported are tungsten, in 1917 1500 tons with a 60 per cent basis; a deposit at Yauli gives 14 per cent zinc with silver; a large borax lake near the city of Arequipa is likely soon to be developed; salt, a government monopoly, is found in many places but mainly worked in the salinas of Huacho near Lima. Bismuth, molybdenum, and antimony are found.

Petroleum is a very important product of Peru, the total area of oil territory being 5000 square miles, not all proved but with possibilities. The chief field is in Tumbes and Piura in the north, the Titicaca so far having made slight production. The latter field is 300 miles from the sea and eight from Lake Titicaca, near the Bolivian frontier and extending toward Cuzco. Deposits have been found in several provinces but the chief work was not far from the Juliaca station where 10 wells were sunk, in 1912 producing an average of 50 barrels a day, the oil with the paraffin base. At last accounts the work had been discontinued. In 1915 there were 524 wells in the country.

The field at the north extends 180 miles south from the town of Tumbes to some distance beyond Paita, running east to the mountains and perhaps including the Islands of Lobos. The field is 30 miles wide, though some believe it may extend 150 miles. Here is practically no rain, no vegetation, and no water, except that of the sea which is used for all purposes. The temperature is called ideal. The wells range from 250 to over 3000 feet deep. At the north there is a slight plateau 160-500 feet high, running down towards the south.

The Zorritos field farthest north and the oldest in Peru is 24 miles south of Tumbes, with wells four miles along the coast, drilled mostly at the water’s edge and some in the ocean. The deepest is 3000 feet but most are 600-2000 feet. Some wells produce 500-600 barrels a day, but one third of those dug were failures.

The Lobitos field in Piura, 60 miles north of Paita, with a proved area of 725 square miles the second largest in Peru, has all its wells over 2000 feet deep. One sunk to 3435 feet was a failure. A well around 3000 feet deep costs $10 per foot average, against $1.50 or $2.00 for wells under 1500 feet. The shallower wells here are short lived. In 1915 a new pool was opened 12 miles north.

The Negritos field is the richest, 40 miles north of Paita, with an area of 650 square miles. The average depth of the wells is 2500-3000 feet and the most important oil deposits are below 1500 feet. Eleven miles east is an asphalt seepage called La Brea. The oil from Negritos is piped 16 miles north to Talara, the port where the refinery and the wharves are situated. Besides the 6-inch pipe line there is a narrow gauge railway. The modern refinery has a capacity of 6000 barrels a day. With pressure stills employed the oil will give 75 per cent benzine. The Talara port permits vessels of 28-foot draught to approach the wharves. The International Petroleum Company, said to be controlled by Standard Oil interests, now operates this property and has taken over the smaller property of the Lagunitos Oil Company 11 miles from Talara. The amount of oil production in Peru has in ten years increased from 756,226 barrels of 42 gallons to 2,550,000 barrels in 1916, two thirds of the last amount coming from Negritos and Lagunitos.

Industries

While Peru does not support large manufacturing industries she has more than some other South American countries and ample means for increase. Scattered along the coast are more than 50 streams which, though small, falling 10,000 feet, are capable of providing an immense amount of electric power. The use of electricity is already widespread, electric lights and telephones are found in many towns, in several, electric cars; the development of this source of power is progressing.

Of factories, sugar mills take the lead, 50 haciendas near the coast having their own mills. In some of these 75 per cent of the sucrose is extracted with the use of the best machinery. Alcohol and aguardiente are made from both sugar cane and grapes, as well as wine from the latter. There are rice mills, and factories for making soap, tallow, lard, matches, chocolate, paper, and other ordinary articles; tobacco, cigar and cigarette factories, flour mills, etc. Panamá hats, though made by hand, must not be forgotten.

Of great importance is the manufacture of textiles, in which the Indians were so proficient in Inca days that their work is said never to have been surpassed. Now there are seven cotton factories, five of these at Lima, making 24,000,000 yards of cloth for the home market. Three thousand operatives are employed. Also there are five woolen factories, at Lima, Cuzco, and Arequipa. Although the Indians are illiterate and lacking in initiative they have a taste for mechanics as well as for agriculture and pastoral pursuits. They still weave and spin, making excellent ponchos and blankets. Education will be a developer. The Indian’s patience and skill should be utilized, his ambition roused, so that he may desire to live more comfortably. Higher wages and more varied wants for these people will produce more business and prosperity in all lines.

Investments

Peru obviously offers very favorable opportunities in many lines: railway construction and varied works of engineering, irrigation, sanitation, development of electric power; agriculture, especially the raising of sugar and cotton along the coast, and of a variety of additional products in the montaña; mining of all kinds, especially coal; stock raising; all of these in many sections with a very desirable climate. Of stock, the raising of sheep for the export of wool would doubtless be most profitable. The grasses of the table-land are excellent fodder; the climate is cold enough to ensure heavy fleece but not so extreme as to be injurious in snow storms or in fair weather. By importing a few rams an expert in the business would be able to conduct it with large profit.

The farmer may purchase land in the montaña at $1.00 an acre and up, according to location, or secure it on other terms arranged for immigrants. Rubber and timber lands are leased under special regulations. Fruit raising and poultry might be profitable in some places. There is an excellent chance for small factories, perhaps for large ones. In many cities of the North and West Coasts American hotels or boarding houses, if properly conducted, would have great success.

CHAPTER XXIV
BOLIVIA: AREA, HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, POPULATION, ETC.

One of the two inland Republics of South America, Bolivia has an enormous area, a section of which is still unexplored in detail. Its chief towns situated on the lofty Andean plateau or a little over its eastern edge, it seems wonderful indeed that here in the 16th century, prior to the existence of New York or Boston, were populous, wealthy cities, hundreds of miles from the coast and from the seat of the Viceroy at Lima. In the present day, such a horseback ride across country as was then and till within a half century common, would by most persons be considered quite a feat, while a similar descent to the Atlantic port of Buenos Aires, then not unusual, is an expedition that would commend itself to few; though this crossing were to the Paraguay River only, where a steamboat would be available for the remainder of the journey.

Area, Population, Boundary

Area. Bolivia, with an area variously given as 515,000 to 708,000 square miles, is generally counted third in size of the Republics. Pending the settlement of the boundary dispute with Paraguay and more accurate surveys, probably at least 600,000 may be conceded, a larger territory than the entire Atlantic slope of the United States. Once possessing a small coast line which included the port of Antofagasta, Bolivia was deprived of this in 1883 at the close of the war with Chile.

Population. The number of inhabitants, mainly an estimate, has been recently given as nearly 3,000,000. With about four persons to a square mile, it is the most sparsely peopled of American Republics.

Boundary. At the north and east the country borders on Brazil. Paraguay is at the southeast, Argentina directly south, and Chile and Peru west.

History

Known by the name of Alto Peru, the country was ruled for nearly three centuries by the Viceroy at Lima, and by a Royal Audience of four men at Chuquisaca, now Sucre, the nominal capital of the Republic. La Paz is noted as the seat of the earliest effort (July, 1809) in South America for democratic government. Though abortive, it was the inspiration of later struggles. The battle of Ayacucho in 1824, which ended Spanish dominion over the continent, was followed by the entrance into La Paz of General Sucre with his victorious army, February 7, 1825. The Act of Independence is dated August 6, 1825. The Republic was named for Bolívar, who was elected President, while Chuquisaca was made the capital with the name of Sucre. General Bolívar, inaugurated in November, resigned in January, 1826, and was succeeded by General Sucre, the first President who really served. More or less troublous times followed until a war with Chile broke out in 1879 over the export nitrate tax. At the conclusion of peace Bolivia lost the small coast section of nitrate land, Antofagasta, which she previously possessed. Since that time several revolutions have occurred, one in 1920, but none affecting her credit, her foreign contracts, or the lives of the people generally.

Government

Bolivia is in form a centralized republic and has the usual three branches. The President, who with two Vice Presidents is elected for four years, and is ineligible for a consecutive term, exercises almost absolute authority, although Congress meets annually on the sixth of August. The President’s Cabinet is composed of six Ministers: of Foreign Relations and Worship, Interior and Justice, Treasury, Promotion (Internal Improvements), Public Instruction and Agriculture, and War and Colonization.

The Senate has 16 members, the Chamber of Deputies 72. The administrators of the Departments and of the 63 Provinces, the Prefects and the Sub-prefects respectively, are appointed by the President. Municipal Councils regulate the local affairs of the cities. Suffrage is enjoyed by male citizens over 21 (not domestics) who can read and write, who have a fixed income of 200 bolivians, and whose names are registered. The Supreme Court alone of the three branches of government is located at the nominal capital Sucre. The Judiciary has a Supreme Court with seven Judges, a Superior Court in each Department, and Provincial and Parochial Courts.

The Republic comprises eight Departments and three Territories as follows:

Departments	Area, in square miles	Population	Capitals	Population	Altitude, in feet
La Paz	73,000	734,000	La Paz	107,000	12,005
Oruro	27,000	137,000	Oruro	31,000	12,178
Potosí	57,000	515,000	Potosí	30,000	13,251
Cochabamba	36,000	512,600	Cochabamba	35,000	8,387
Chuquisaca	37,000	320,000	Sucre	30,000	9,328
Tarija	31,000	160,000	Tarija	11,600	6,248
Santa Cruz	140,000	327,000	Santa Cruz	25,000	1,450
El Beni	95,000	50,000	Trinidad	6,000	774
Territories
Colonias del Noroeste	81,000	50,000	Riberalta	3,200
Colonias del Gran Chaco	60,000	23,000	Villa Montes	970
Delegación Nacional en el Oriente			Puerto Suarez

Population

The population of Bolivia, about 2,800,000, as in Peru is in three classes: the whites, numbering possibly 500,000, Indians and mestizos most of the rest, the Indians largely in the majority, though there are more than half a million mestizos. A few thousand are negroes. Since the coming of the Spaniards centuries ago, there has been no real immigration, the mass of the people thus continuing Indian. The whites, many of whom have some admixture of Indian blood, are of course the ruling class. An aristocratic society exists, the members of which follow French fashions and customs and in considerable number have visited Europe. A few persons have inherited or acquired by mining or otherwise very large fortunes. Some persons of obviously mixed race or mainly of Indian blood become educated, and acquiring wealth take part in politics, hold office, and obtain social position; more such than in Peru. There is a really cultured society in all towns of moderate size.

The plateau Indians are chiefly Aymarás or Quichuas, the former living around Lake Titicaca and throughout the northern part of the plateau; while the Quichuas, strange to say, are at the south, farther from their kindred in Peru. The Aymarás are less prepossessing than the Quichuas, more churlish, rather darker, similar in mode of life, though a trifle more backward. They till the soil to some extent, act as herdsmen, work in mines, and perform heavy labor of any kind, carrying loads of 60-80 pounds, 20, 30, even 50 miles a day. The women are said to be stronger than the men; both do spinning and weaving. The men are inveterate chewers of coca, and men and women both are much given to drunkenness. Of melancholy aspect, they seem devoid of ambition. Generally submissive, if aroused they are revengeful and murderous. Having received little attention from the Government they are probably in poorer case than when ruled by the Incas; they are believed to be diminishing in numbers. Plans have been formed for improving their condition.

The mestizos, also called cholos, feminine cholas, are the industrial class of the nation, artisans, shopkeepers to some extent, etc. The men dress in second class European style; the cholas, one might say, half and half. As a rule the cholos treat the Indians more harshly than do the real whites, while to the latter they are rather servile. Some cholos have distinguished themselves as writers and statesmen. Two thirds of the population are said to live at or above 12,000 feet. Several mining camps are at 15,000 to 16,000 feet.

Education

Education is public, official, free, or private. Primary education is called free and compulsory. The provision, formerly inadequate, has recently been improved in accordance with a well planned programme. There are about 900 primary schools with 53,000 pupils, including private and kindergarten. Fourteen colegios nacionales provide for secondary education besides private schools under government supervision; in La Paz and Cochabamba, two under Methodist auspices have accomplished excellent work. Teachers are trained in four normal schools, while professional or higher education is afforded by Universities in La Paz, Sucre, and Cochabamba, Law Schools at Oruro, Potosí, Santa Cruz, and Tarija, a School of Theology at Santa Cruz. There are further a Mining School, Institutes of Agronomy, Commerce, Modern Languages, and Music; and four Schools of Arts and Trades, the one at Cochabamba giving excellent results from instruction in weaving wool, and in the use of native dyes. With a view to extending and modernizing the education of women coeducation is practised in most institutions and there are two liceos for girls. Students of especial ability are sometimes sent abroad for study, and foreign instructors are engaged.

Press, Religion, Etc.

Press. The press, while important, is said to have less influence than in the neighboring Republics, and it contains less news of the world.

Religion. The religion of the State is Roman Catholic, but freedom is now granted to other forms of worship. Civil marriage alone is legal, but is frequently neglected by the Indians.

Telegraphic Communication. The Capital is in telegraphic communication with the rest of the world and with the capitals of all the Departments. The country has over 200 offices, and 4350 miles of wire. A powerful wireless station at Viacha, on the plateau 15 miles from La Paz, communicates with the Pacific Coast and with passing ships. Other stations are at Villa Bella, Cobija, Trinidad, Santa Cruz, Ballivián, D’Orbigny, Esteros, Riberalta, Puerto Suarez, and Yacuiba. Telephone service exists in La Paz and Oruro.

Money. The unit of Bolivian money is the boliviano, equal to about 40 cents (.389) of our money. English and Peruvian gold pounds are legal tender, equal to 12.50 bolivianos. The latter are divided into 100 centavos. Silver coins are of 20 and 50 centavos. Bank bills of one and five bolivianos and of higher denominations are in general use.

Weights and Measures are of the metric system, but in the interior the old Castilian system is chiefly employed.