58o 



The National Geographic Magazine 



past year it is probable that the exporta- 

 tions exceeded 20,000 tons of pure tin. 



It is impossible to foresee the marvel- 

 ous development that railway facilities 

 will offer to this industry, as well as to 

 the general progress of the country. Bis- 

 muth, zinc, and gold represent quantities 

 no less important. 



In spite of all the obstacles that the 

 Bolivian industrials have encountered on 

 passing through the Amazon, the ex- 

 portation of rubber in 1905 amounted 

 to 1,700,000 kilos. This is a product 

 whose otitput could be easily increased 

 when the railroads are completed. Sir 

 Martin Conway calculates as not improb- 

 able that there may be about 50 millions 

 of rubber trees in the region of the Upper 

 Beni alone. Each tree is supposed to 

 yield annually from three to seven pounds 

 of rubber. Bolivia also exports consid- 

 erable quantities of alpaca wool, the finest 

 chinchilla and vicmia skins, and other 

 national products. 



The position Bolivia occupies in the 

 heart of South America gives to her 

 commercial and international importance, 

 and, although deprived of her coast on 

 the Pacific, she is in immediate contact 

 with five of the most advanced republics ; 

 and it is to their interest to encourage 

 mutual trade for the benefits that will 

 naturally result. And this is not all. 

 The main railway line under construction 

 in Bolivia has a continental bearing, for 

 the connection that it will establish be- 

 tween the Argentine system, that is now 

 being extended to the interior of Bolivia, 

 with the Peruvian railroads coming from 

 the north and the Pacific coast. Then 

 Lima in Peru, La Paz in Bolivia, and 

 Buenos Aires in Argentina will be united 

 within a few years by a continuous rail- 

 way spanning the 2,500 miles; more or 

 less, that separate the capital of Peru, on 

 the Pacific, from the capital of Argen- 

 tina, on the Atlantic, and will form an 

 important section of the Pan-American 

 Railway. 



For the first time United States capi- 

 talists are taking an interest in the con- 

 struction of railways in that section of 



South America. The Argentine roads- 

 were built with English capital, and the 

 same is the case with those of Brazil and 

 Chile, where the majority of the roads 

 are government property. Peru con- 

 structed her railways with national funds, 

 but had to cede them for a term of years 

 to her English creditors. Bolivia, then, 

 is the first country where, in cooperation 

 with the Bolivian national resources, 

 American capital is being invested. 



NEARLY 1,000 MILES OP RAILROADS TO Bt 

 BUILT BY AMERICAN CAPITAL 



It has been my aim and I had the good 

 fortune to succeed in interesting repre- 

 sentative New York bankers in the great 

 work of giving life to my country by 

 means of roads through rich deposits of 

 minerals and open to the world her virgin 

 forests. My government has concluded 

 directly with the bankers a contract that 

 is today being executed. The lines to be 

 constructed by the American syndicate 

 are from La Paz to Tupiza, 5;^o miles ;. 

 Oruro to Cochabamba, 133 miles, and La 

 Paz to Puerto Pando, 200 miles; in all, 

 863 miles. Of these railroads the one 

 from La Paz, passing by Oruro and Po- 

 tosi to Tupiza, will form the chain uniting 

 the republics of the Pacific with those of 

 the Atlantic, besides traversing the rich- 

 est metallic zone that exists, perhaps, in 

 the world. The line from Oruro to 

 Cochabamba will open to commerce the 

 fertile valleys of the interior of that sec- 

 tion, the most thickly populated of Bo- 

 livia, and make that part of the country 

 accessible to the navigable branches of 

 the Mamore. 



The railroad from La Paz to Puerto 

 Pando, a port situated at the headwaters 

 of the Beni, will open the territories of 

 the Beni, where rubber grows in such 

 abundance, coffee, and all the most 

 precious tropical products, as well as the 

 various classes of woods. This railroad 

 will have the peculiarity of passing in a 

 few hours from the frigid zone of the 

 high plains, where there is practically no 

 vegetation, to the tropical region of the 

 orano'e and the sugarcane. In a distance 



