ECUADOR. 



305 



nary power as has been delegated to the exec- 

 utive by Article XCIV of the Constitution. 



Colonization. An engineer has been sent to 

 the Chones river to measure the land and di- 

 vide it into farming-plots, and the resumption 

 of work on the high road to connect Quito 

 witli the bay of Caraquez tends in the same 

 direction. 



Commerce. The export 'movement through 

 the ports of Guayaquil, Caraquez, and Callao 

 in 1885 having amounted in the aggregate to 

 $4,353,959, it appears that there has been a 

 falling off of $874,911 in the export from 

 Guayaquil, and of $79,592 from Caraquez, 

 compared with the corresponding period of 

 1884. The Minister of Finance has been un- 

 able to furnish the import figures for the year, 

 Congress, for economical reasons, having sup- 

 pressed the section for statistics. 



Steamship Lines. The Hamburg Kosmos Line 

 of steamers was to begin touching regularly at 

 Guayaquil, Manta, and Esmeraldas, in No- 

 vember, 1886. The English line of steamers 

 has meanwhile also increased its calls at the 

 Ecuadorian ports of Guayaquil, Manta, and Es- 

 meraldas, on the trips to Panama, from month- 

 ly to fortnightly. A company was formed in 

 October at Guayaquil for the purpose of estab- 

 lishing a regular line of vessels on the western 

 coast of North and South America from Cali- 

 fornia to Chili. During the height of the co- 

 coa-crop, when Ecuadorian products abound at 

 Guayaquil and there is frequently a lack of 

 ship-room for Europe, some of the vessels of 

 the company will be laid on the berth for Eu- 

 ropean ports. The main reasons for the forma- 

 tion of this line were the high steamer freight 

 and the objectionable transshipment of Ecuado- 

 rian products at Panama, causing risk and ad- 

 ditional expense as well as loss of time, while 

 fast-sailing vessels, careful handling of their 

 cargo, and moderate freights will also enable 

 the smaller shippers to supply the European 

 market. On their return trip from Europe 

 such vessels are to take cargo at leading west 

 European ports direct for Guayaquil. 



Railroads. In September, 1886, work on the 

 Southern Railroad was proceeding vigorously, 

 and it was expected that the line would soon 

 be in operation six miles beyond the Chimbo 

 bridge. Simultaneously the Government made 

 a contract for the construction of a railway 

 line from the port of San Lorenzo to Ibarra, 

 in the province of Imbabura, to be called the 

 Pacific Railroad, and to be finished in six years, 

 the Government paying during ninety -nine 

 years to come an annual interest of 6 per cent, 

 on the capital advanced to build the line out 

 of its earnings. 



In July a company was formed in New York 

 under the name of " The Chones Railroad Com- 

 pany," with a share capital of $500,000, for the 

 purpose of building a narrow-gauge railway 

 from the bay of Caraquez to the capital, Quito, 

 the distance not exceeding 120 miles, being 

 about half the distance between Guayaquil and 

 VOL. xxvi. 20 A 



Quito. The new line in course of construction 

 from Puerto Bolivar to Machala is of great 

 importance to the rich province of Oro, inas- 

 much as it will eventually extend to Pasaje. 

 Considerable headway has been made since 

 the beginning of 1886 on the railroad line 

 building between Guayaquil and Quito, under 

 the management of the Polish engineer, Ernest 

 Malinowski, who originated the project of the 

 famous Oroya-Cerro de Pasco Railroad in Peru. 



Salt Monopoly. The Government made a con- 

 tract with Mr. J. Kelly for the purpose of or- 

 ganizing properly the "Estanco de la Sal." 

 Three kilometres of rails, after the Decan- 

 ville system, were ordered from Paris, together 

 with 30 cars, for the conveyance of the crude 

 salt from the ponds to the Santa Elena Salinas, 

 and thence to the wharf for shipment. A 

 store has been built, capable of containing 

 5,000 tons. Rules for the manufacture of the 

 salt have been, laid down by Dr. Wolff, and 

 operatives have been procured from Peru. 

 Another store was built during the summer at 

 the port of Naranjal, and a similar one at the 

 port of Esmeraldas. 



Cocoa. There arrived at Guayaquil from the 

 interior, for shipment abroad, in the year 1885, 

 24,056,521 pounds of cocoa, against 16,802,- 

 515 in 1884, being an increase for the twelve 

 months of 7,254,006 pounds. 



Ivory-Nnts. The receipts of ivory-nuts at 

 Guayaquil, during the first nine months of 

 1886, were to a great extent of an inferior 

 quality, at prices varying from $5 to $5.25 a 

 quintal on shore. There had been shipped 

 abroad at Guayaquil, up to Oct. 1, 1886, 132,- 

 874 quintals, against 142,376 during the corre- 

 sponding period in 1885, and 70,321 in 1884. 



Agricultural Implements. According to an 

 American consular report, the implement most 

 used in the lower section of the country is the 

 machete, or cutlass. Iron bars, flattened at 

 one end, are used for planting rice, sugar- 

 cane, and Indian corn. In the mountainous 

 sections, especially near Quito, crude wooden 

 plows, having a single handle, are used. 

 The part entering the soil is covered with a 

 piece of iron fashioned by a blacksmith. It 

 does not make a regular furrow, but works 

 like a hog's nose, turning the soil both ways 

 into ridges. Brushes bound together consti- 

 tute the only harrow in use. No agricultural 

 machinery is used, unless sugar-machinery may 

 be thus rated. 



Gold-Mines. The recently discovered Zaruma 

 gold-quartz mines are represented as being 

 fabulously rich, as the Cascajal mines are also 

 asserted to be. In September, mining-engineer 

 Don Tito G. Saenz de Tejada visited both on a 

 prospecting trip on behalf of certain capitalists 

 and quite a number of placer-mines along the 

 banks of Chimbo river, where gold was being 

 washed. On this tour through the Zaruma 

 quartz-gold mines he assayed specimens of 

 quartz an inch square containing half a dollar's 

 worth of gold. Others have gone to inspect 



