The mining company has extended its operations and has acquired privileges of rubber exploitation from the Peruvian government. Under the contract it opens roads and mule trails into the forest region, and receives land grants and rubber concessions in compensation. Ultimately a route will be opened to the head-waters of the Inambari River, and this district will add to the output of crude rubber through the port of Mollendo.
The opening of the river basins of the Inambari and the Madre de Dios is essential to the future traffic of the Southern Railway. In a message to Congress in 1905 the President of Peru stated that the bridle-paths and cart-roads under construction, or contracted for, aggregated 1,300 miles. A grant of 2,000,000 acres of land was authorized with the chief purpose of securing 200 miles of wagon-road. Besides the American syndicate a Peruvian company has extensive rubber interests along the left bank of the San Gaban. There are extensive gold washings in Carabaya and Sandia. Heretofore the rubber product of this region has followed the river courses till the Amazon was reached and it could be exported to Europe by way of Para, the time occupied in getting it to market being from six to eight months. By the cart-roads to Tirapata, ten to twelve days are required, and three days more by railway to Mollendo, whence the transit to Europe after the completion of the Panama Canal may be made in thirty days or less.
From Juliaca, a distinctively Quichua Indian collection of adobe cabins, to Puno, the railway line is again straight up and down over the mountains, cooning the ridge once more, till the road begins to follow the more crooked courses of the waterways. It winds through a rich agricultural district, plain and valley where there are many pretty farms. The live-stock industry seems to be a flourishing one, for there are great herds of sheep, alpacas, llamas, and some cattle.
Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, is 12,540 feet above sea-level. It is a town of blue buildings lying in the concave side of the mountain. It is the head of the Department, has a population of 5,000, and is the customs port and the commercial centre. The vigilance of both Peruvian and Bolivian customs officials is constantly exercised to prevent contraband trade in alcohol, of which the people are inordinately fond. Indian life is seen in many phases, especially on Lake Titicaca, where the natives with their balsas, straw boats with square grass sails and grass hoods that open and shut like an umbrella, lead a half-shore, half-sea life, fishing and trading. They did not seem to me an idle class, but rather good-naturedly willing to work if the labor were not too strenuous.
Lake navigation begins at Puno, and since the place is the terminus of the railroad the shipping causes an unusual degree of activity for an inter-Andine town. Bolivian commerce comes up the Desaguadero into Lake Titicaca or directly across from the terminus of the Bolivian Railway line at Guaqui. The lake is interesting because it is the highest large body of fresh water on the globe that has steam navigation, but I saw no evidences of the peculiar properties attributed to its waters. The captains of these little steam-vessels are either Scotchmen or Scandinavians. I learned to my discomfort that when the winds were blowing Titicaca could become as unruly as Lake Michigan and could cause sea-sickness. A daring conception of engineering genius is to tap the waters of Lake Titicaca for the purpose of securing electric power and utilize them to supply motive force for the railways.
Puno formerly had a considerable trade in the highly prized vicuña rugs which are brought there by the Indians, but the industry has lagged in recent years due to the scarcity of the skins. A Chilean established a factory at Arica, and most of the pelts are carried across the Cordilleras to his market. The mineral deposits of the district include silver, mercury, copper, lead, and bituminous coal. The latter is lignite, but the existence of coal-oil or petroleum appears to be well established. The Americans who control the Santo Domingo mines had arranged to sink wells, but the failure to secure satisfactory transportation rates from the railroad company caused them to give up their project.
CHAPTER VIII
THE REGIONS AND THEIR RESOURCES
Topography a Key to Economic Resources—Coast, Sierra, and Montaña—Cotton in the Coast Zone—Piura’s High Quality—Lima and Pisco Product—Prices—Increase Probable—Sugar-Cane as a Staple—Probability of Growth—Rice as an Export and an Import—Irrigation Prospects—Mines in the Sierra—Geographical Distribution of the Deposits—Live-Stock on the High Plains—Rubber in the Forest Region—Iquitos on the Amazon a Smart Port—Government Regulations for the Gum Industry.
TO know the topography of Peru is to understand her economic outlook. The key to her industrial growth and to the mastering motives of her national policy is found in the knowledge of the three zones into which the country naturally divides itself. A lesson in physical geography is a study of the Peruvian aspect of the Panama Canal.