COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH AMERICA. 395 



tion of about three millions, at least half of whom are pure In- 

 dians. It is composed of three zones : 1. A rainless coast strip, 

 fertilized only here and there by rivers from the Andes, which 

 afford the means of irrigation for sugar and cotton plantations 

 tended by Chinese coolies. 2. The sierra, or valleys and table- 

 lands of the Andes. On one of the table-lands lies (partly in 

 Bolivia) Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America, at the 

 height of twelve thousand five hundred feet above the sea. At 

 this height even barley seldom ripens, and the only regular food- 

 grain is derived from a native plant called quinoa (wholly unlike 

 our cereals). 3. The Montana, the region on the eastern slopes of 

 the Andes, containing the head- waters of the Amazon, a region 

 largely covered with impenetrable forests, of which the most 

 valuable product is Peruvian bark. The capital of the country is 

 Lima, an unhealthy city on the coast strip, a few miles from its 

 port, Callao. 



The chief exports are sugar, cotton, nitrate of soda, and llama, 

 vicuna, and sheep's wool ; the first three derived from the coast 

 strip, the last from the sierra. Apart from nitrate of soda, the 

 mineral wealth for which Peru (including Bolivia or Upper Peru) 

 was long ago noted is at present commercially of little impor- 

 tance, but projects are now on foot for conferring renewed impor- 

 tance on them by the laying of railways. Among the railways 

 already in existence in Peru are two of the most remarkable in 

 the world, those namely by which the table-lands of the Andes 

 are reached. One of these is the Lima-Oroya Railway (not yet 

 completed), which attains in its passage through the western 

 chain of the Andes a height of fifteen thousand six hundred feet. 

 This railway it is proposed to continue northward to Cerro de 

 Pasco, where there are immense deposits of silver-ore, though the 

 silver-mines have been inundated for half a century. These it is 

 proposed to reopen and work scientifically. The other Andes 

 railway is from the southern seaport of Mollendo to Puno on Lake 

 Titicaca, and this line it is now proposed to continue northward 

 to Cuzco, the ancient capital of Peru. The value of this line has 

 already been greatly increased by the establishment of steamboat 

 traffic on Lake Titicaca and the river Desaguadero, the outlet 

 connecting that lake with Lake Aullagas in Bolivia. Another 

 railway project which has the prospect of being carried out is one 

 for a line southward from Lima, to be afterward continued up 

 the Andes to Huancavelica, where there are rich deposits of quick- 

 silver. It is likewise proposed to bring the Montana, now almost 

 completely shut off from external commerce, into connection with 

 the outside world by the laying of roads in the north to the Ama- 

 zon. In this district cotton and coffee plantations have already 

 been started with success. 



