380 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



barrier to commercial intercourse, and thereby permit the 

 movement of trade down the Madeira and the Amazon to 

 the Atlantic. 



The following will 2five the essential features of this im- 

 portant work: "The road will run along the eastern shore 

 of the Madeira River, in Brazil, from the head of navigation 

 below the rapids to the navigable water of the Mamore 

 River (a branch of the Madeira) above. The Madeira has 

 its source on the great "water- shed of Bolivia, east of the 

 Andes ; leaves Bolivia at the northeastern point, and runs 

 across the table-lands of Brazil to the Amazon, which it joins 

 at Barra, about seven hundred miles from the Atlantic. A 

 series of falls, however, render the river useless for a distance 

 of one hundred and eighty miles. The Mamore is a branch 

 of the Madeira, and begins above the falls on the border of 

 Bolivia." 



The object of the proposed railroad, as has been before 

 explained, is to bridge over this gap of one hundred and 

 eighty miles that nature has interposed in this region be- 

 tween it and the commerce of the outer world. The area 

 of country that the road will tap is estimated to be about 

 480,000 square miles; and of the country itself, the salubrity 

 of its climate, its mineral resources, and agricultural capa- 

 bilities, the most flattering accounts are given. It is said 

 that silver, gold, lead, copper, salt, and nitre are abundant; 

 and that the soil will produce cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco, 

 coffee, cocoa, indigo, and other important staples in profu- 

 sion. 



The grant received by the Bolivian Navigation Company 

 (under whose auspices the work of improvements is being 

 carried on) from the governments of Brazil and Bolivia em- 

 braces a million acres of land, and the navigation of all the 

 waters of Bolivia for the period of ninety-nine years, with 

 the additional concession that no other company shall be 

 accorded the right to build a railroad around the rapids for 

 the next fifty years. The possible value of this monopoly 

 in the future cannot be estimated; and since the contract 

 for the building of the road which is to unite this country 

 in commercial relations with the rest of the world has been 

 accorded to American engineers, the hope is widely express- 

 ed that this country may take such measures as will direct 



