March 20, 1919] 



NATURE 



47 



arisen as yet, except in places where the 

 discovery of mineral wealth has compelled 

 such definition. In the case of the Peru-Bolivia 

 boundary, however, though evidences of rich 

 mineral deposits are found by the most casual 

 explorer, it was not the mineral so much as the 

 vegetable wealth which was the final determining 

 cause inducing the States concerned to attempt 

 the settlement of a dispute dating back to their 

 foundation. The rise in the value of rubber, 

 the exhaustion of the more readily accessible 

 rubber forests, and the consequent pushing out of 

 the rubber-collector into more and more remote 

 fastnesses, brought forward the question of this 

 boundary, running for a large part of its length 

 through either actual or possible rubber-bearing 



future rtay have to pay special attention to this 

 point. 



It would be out of place to recount here the 

 successive steps that led up to the appeal by the 

 States concerned to the Royal Geographical 

 Society to nominate officers to carry out the survey 

 and demarcation, fully set forth in the volume 

 under review. The work was almost completed 

 in 1914, when the officers engaged were, of course, 

 recalled for service. Two of them fell in»the early 

 months of the war, and as the others were still 

 engaged on service, and no date could be fixed 

 for their release, it was decided in 1917 that the 

 preparation and publication of their report should 

 be undertaken by the society under the editor- 

 ship of Sir T. Holdich, assisted by Mr. .Arthur 



-Calijoii from the Rinconada Gl.icier. From " Peru- Bolivia Boundary Commission, 1911-13 



forest, as one imperatively demanding a final 

 solution. 



We may remark in parenthesis that there is 

 another source of natural wealth, scarcely seriously 

 taken into account yet, but which will have a 

 vital influence on the future of civilisation, and 

 with which boundary surveys, especially such as 

 lie in mountain regions, are most intimately con- 

 cerned. The wealth in question is that of natural 

 sources of water-power. What the aggregate 

 horse-power now running to waste off the gigantic 

 fnountain system of the Andes amounts to is 

 beyond the range of human conjecture, but we 

 may safely predict that within at most a genera- 

 tion or two this power will be of enormous, 

 realisable value. Boundary agreements of the 

 NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 



Hinks. The splendid volume before us is, there- 

 fore, due to the able labours of these editors, 

 assisted in a large measure by the very excellent 

 and exhaustive records kept by the members of 

 the commission. We may safely say that no 

 boundary has been described with more complete- 

 ness, and it is to be hoped that this volume will 

 form a model for the future. Our knowledge of 

 Africa, for example, will advance by rapid strides 

 if the demarcation of the new boundaries, pre- 

 sumably called for within the next few years, 

 results in any comparable addition to our geo- 

 graphical knowledge, and is recorded in a volume 

 of such permanent interest. 



In one point the Peru-Bolivia commission was 

 exceptionally fortunate in that one of its members. 



