BOLIVIA. 



costs. The name and fabulous riches of Potosi 

 are familiar. It was discovered in 1544, and 

 the products up to 1572 amounted to $250,- 

 000,000; from 1572 to 1627, to $340,000,000; 

 from the middle of the 17th to the 18th cent- 

 ury the records of Potosi show an annual 

 average production of from $2,500,000 to $3,- 

 500,000 ; and, according to data contained in 

 letters written to the King of Spain in 1627, the 

 compilations of Friar Jose G. de Acosta, and the 

 annals of Potosi, the Cerro Rico de Potosi or 

 Rich Silver Mountain, has produced, up to the 

 present time, upward of 400,000,000 sterling 

 of silver. Prior to 1825 the industry was er- 

 ratic, and mining operations were frequently 

 paralyzed by political troubles. Among the 

 earliest interferences was the civil war in Spain 

 in 1623. The war of independence in 1809, 

 ending with the declaration of peace in 1825, 

 caused another suspension in mining, and a 

 general impoverishment of the country. Since 

 the independence of the republic, however, 

 mining enterprises have never been disturbed 

 through political causes, and the irregularities 

 occasioned by revolutionary movements have 

 not extended to the mining regions or caused 

 injury to corporations. On the contrary, the 

 production of precious metals has never ceased 

 to be encouraged and fostered, and, while min- 

 ers are not required to pay taxes, the export 

 duty is only one peso, or eight reals per mark 

 (58 cents per 5065 pound avoirdupois), gold 

 being free, and machinery imported for ex- 

 ploitation entirely exempt from taxation. The 

 growth of Bolivia's leading industry, however, 

 is seriously retarded for want of more roads, 

 proximity to accessible seaports, timber, and a 

 better fuel than taquia and vareta (llama- 

 dung and moss) in the silver -lode districts. 

 But these disadvantages have been somewhat 

 diminished, for, by means of the Mollendo-Are- 

 quipa - Puno Railroad, connecting with the 

 steam navigation on Lake Titicaca, and the 

 stage-roads from Chililaya (or Querto Perez) 

 to La Paz, and thence to Corocoro and Oruro, 

 an extensive mineral territory is made easier of 

 access, while the steady advance of the railroad 

 system, now extending westward in the Ar- 

 gentine Republic toward southern Bolivia, is 

 greatly facilitating the reopening of the Potosi 

 mining district, which has lately been under- 

 taken by an Anglo-Bolivian company. The 

 Huanchaca mine produced, in 1885, $4,819,146 

 worth of silver-ores, netting the company for 

 the year $2,080,039. 



Gold. The gold of Bolivia is chiefly derived 

 from placer-mines along the rivers coursing 

 through the section of country embracing the 

 eastern slopes and foot-hills of the La Paz 

 Cordillera. Gold-mining is carried on in a 

 primitive way by the natives. 



The New Mining Laws. At one of the late 

 national conventions, the mining laws were 

 carefully revised, and the new Spanish code 

 substantially adopted, with the view of favor- 

 ing the development of the industry and invit- 



ing the investment of foreign capital. Among 

 its fundamental provisions are : 



On lands belonging to the public domain, and also 

 on untenced private property, minerals and mines 

 may be sought, applied for, granted, and worked. 

 Within fenced ground, the proprietor's permission 

 or judicial license must be first obtained. 



All individuals possessed of civil rights may apply 

 for and obtain one or more pertenencias (one perte- 

 nencia = 100 m. square = 1 hectarea) in one concession, 

 not, however, to exceed 30 pertenencias (or 30 Jiecta- 

 reas). The pertenencias constituting one concession 

 may not be scattered, but must border on one an- 

 other (having common side-lines), forming a right- 

 anorular polygon. 



Priority of application has preference, however 

 slight the difference in time. 



Gold or tin deposits or other metallic minerals oc- 

 curring in rivers, placers, pockets, irregular deposits, 

 or bedded veins, on public or private lands, are sub- 

 ject to the same law applicable to all mineral conces- 

 sions. 



The claimant is owner of, and may work to an un- 

 limited depth, all the ground, veins, deposits, and 

 mineral occurrences, within his surface claim and 

 within the vertical planes passed through all the sur- 

 face boundary- lines of sucn claim. 



The concessions are perpetual in duration as long 

 as the yearly patente^ of five bolivianos (five Bolivian 

 dollars) per hectarea is regularly paid. 



In case of failure to pay the patente for a period of 

 one year, the claimant forfeits his right, title, and 

 interest in and to the claim ; and his property is sold 

 out at auction to the highest bidder, wnen the claim- 

 ant receives the surplus, after the amount of his in- 

 debtedness, plus costs and plus 10 per cent, of the 

 entire amount for which the property was sold are 

 deducted. 



New Projects. With all the natural resources 

 that should combine to make Bolivia an extraor- 

 dinarily rich and prosperous country, it must 

 be acknowledged that, with the exception of 

 the calisaya-bark and coca plantations, and the 

 operations of a few of the better regulated 

 mining enterprises, everything is surprisingly 

 backward. Each new administration has be- 

 gun with strong endeavors to pursue a policy 

 conducive to business activity. Liberal and 

 numerous concessions have been granted for 

 roads and other public improvements ; yet, for 

 the greater part, nothing but trails connect 

 the cities, traveled by mules, llamas, and In- 

 dians. In 1868 a navigation company was 

 formed, with a large concession from the 

 Government, having as its object the opening 

 up of a route down the rivers Mamore 1 and 

 Madeira to the Atlantic. The scheme was 

 promising, and would have given easy access 

 to half a million square miles of valuable land 

 in Bolivia and Brazil, traversed by immense 

 rivers, forming a natural canal system pos- 

 sessed by no other country in the world. But 

 up to the present time no active steps have 

 been taken toward the realization of these 

 designs, and the traffic in that direction, con- 

 fined almost exclusively to the exportation of 

 India-rubber and hides, is expensive and tedi- 

 ous. Another project is now discussed, to con- 

 tinue the navigation of Lake Titicaca through 

 Rio Desaguadero to Lake Poopo, and by means 

 of a new railroad line from Chililaya to La Paz, 

 in substitution for the present stage-road, and 



