752 



PERU. 



documents was not bis fault i. e., if the vessel 

 has been plundered by pirates, or damaged 

 by fire, or he had to seek a harbor in distress. 



Cotton. Cotton-planters have petitioned Con- 

 gress for the purpose of having the export duty 

 on cotton removed, so as to enable them to 

 compete abroad with the cotton produced else- 

 where. 



The Coca-Leaf. This is the dried leaf of a 

 shrub that grows wild on the mountains of 

 Peru and Bolivia. The shrub is also cultivated 

 by those who know its uses and who reside on 

 the elevated districts of those countries from 

 2,000 to 5,000 feet above sea-level. The Indians 

 of Peru many years ago ascertained the stimulat- 

 ing properties of this shrub, the leaves of which 

 they would dry and chew in about the same 

 way that many in this country chew tobacco. 

 As the leaf has a bitter taste, the Indians mix 

 it with quicklime to improve the flavor. The 

 aroma of the plant is penetrating, and when the 

 leaves are drying or dried appears to have a 

 powerful effect on the senses. Its greatest 

 value has been developed within the past thir- 

 ty years. In 1853, Wackenroder and Johnson 

 made some attempts to extract its medicinal 

 and chemical properties, but without avail, and 

 later Gadeke succeeded in preparing an extract 

 containing sublimable crystalline needles. But 

 it was not until 1860 that Niemann succeeded 

 in isolating an alkaloid, which received the 

 name of cocaine, which is a local anaesthetic. 

 Lossen also succeeded in obtaining another 

 alkaloid, which he named hygrin. The coca- 

 leaves, when macerated and treated with pure 

 wine, produce one of the finest stimulants for 

 persons whose nervous system has become ex- 

 hausted by excessive mental work or emotional 

 excitement. 



Commerce. The American trade with Peru 

 has been as follows : 



The exports to Peru from England in 1884 

 were valued at $5,259,976 ; from France, $2,- 

 039,089; and from Germany, $301,070. 



Proposed Mineral Exhibition. It has been de- 

 cided to open on Oct. 1, 1887, in the machinery- 

 buildings and gardens of the Lima Exhibition, 

 under the auspices of the Government, and 

 with the co-operation of the Administrative 

 Society of the Lima Exhibition and the Special 

 School of Mines, a Mineral Exhibition, the prin- 

 cipal object of which is to make known to the 

 world the great rnineralogical wealth of Peru. 

 All objects intended for the exhibition will be 

 exempt from duties. 



The Mnelle-Darsena Contract. The difference of 

 opinion between the two Chambers of the Pe- 

 ruvian Congress regarding the Muelle-Darsena 

 (of Callao) contract, made during the Iglesias 



administration, was satisfactorily arranged on 

 October 15. The deputies who voted that 

 Congress was entitled to declare the contract 

 null and void, and the senators who voted that 

 the matter should be submitted to the courts 

 for decision, met in joint session and passed a 

 bill declaring that the contract concedes privi- 

 leges for a longer period than authorized by 

 the laws of the country ; that to be valid, it 

 requires the approval of Congress; and, that 

 that body, considering the contract to be inju- 

 rious to commerce, declares it null and void. 

 The bill also authorized the executive to ap- 

 point a commission to investigate as to wheth- 

 er the company has faithfully fulfilled its obli- 

 gations undertaken under the contract of Aug. 

 16, 1869. 



Railroads. The syndicate formed inNew York 

 for the purchase of the Andes Railroad has re- 

 newed all the discussion in regard to the pecul- 

 iar features of this road. The purchase was 

 made about two years ago from the Govern- 

 ment of Peru. The railroad was begun by 

 Mr. Meigs in 1870. Starting from the sea, it 

 ascends the narrow valley of the once sacred 

 Eimac, rising 5.GOO feet in the first 46 miles to 

 a beautiful valley, where the people of Lima 

 have found an attractive summer resort; then 

 it follows a winding, giddy pathway along the 

 edge of precipices and over bridges that seem 

 suspended in the air, tunnels the Andes at an 

 altitude of 15,645 feet the most elevated spot 

 in the world where a piston-rod is moved by 

 steam and ends at Oroya, 12,178 feet above 

 the sea. Between the coast and the summit 

 there is not an inch of down grade, and the 

 track has been forced through the mountains 

 by a series of 63 tunnels, whose aggregate 

 length is 21,000 feet. The great tunnel of Ga- 

 leria, by which the pinnacle of the Andes is 

 pierced, will be, when completed, 3,800 feet 

 long, and will be the highest elevation on the 

 earth's surface where any such work has been 

 undertaken. Besides boring the mountains of 

 granite and blasting the clefts along the sides 

 to rest the track upon, steep cuttings and su- 

 perb bridges, the system of reverse tangents 

 had to be adopted in canons that were too nar- 

 row for a curve. So the track zigzags up the 

 mountain-side, on the switch and back-up prin- 

 ciple, the trains taking one leap forward, and 

 after being switched on to another track an- 

 other leap backward, until the summit is won ; 

 so that often there are four and five lines of 

 track parallel to one another, one above an- 

 other, on the mountain-side. 



It is estimated that the construction of the 

 road cost Peru 7,000 lives from pestilence and 

 accident. Land-slides, falling bowlders, pre- 

 mature explosions, sorrache a disease that at- 

 tacks those who are not accustomed to the raw 

 air of the great altitudes fevers caused by 

 deposits of rotten granite, and other causes, re- 

 sulted in a frightful mortality during the seven 

 years the road was under construction ; but 

 it was pushed on until the funds gave out. 



