BOUND AEIES OP BOLIVIA. 355 



ethnical parting-line between the Quichuas and the Aym iras, although here also 

 Peru encroaches on her weaker neighbour, so as to appropriate Puno and other 

 Aymara towns. The natural geographical limit indicated by the Yilcanota Knot 

 between the Amazonian affluents and the Titicaca basin is deflected far to the 

 south ; even the lake itself has been divided in an oblique direction in such a 

 way as to leave the larger section to Peru. 



At the southern extremity, also, the political boundary runs counter to the 

 natural divisions, although here Bolivia would appear to be favoured at the 

 expense of her Argentine neighbour. If the formal will of the inhabitants were 

 not the first consideration in these matters, the province of Tarija, at present 

 included in Bolivia, should be restored to Argentina, lying as it does to the south 

 of the Pio Pilcomayo, in the upper Bermejo basin. By a royal decree Tarija had 

 been attached to Salta for civil and ecclesiastical purposes, and this union with 

 the Argentine city continued from 1807 to 1825, when the new Bolivian republic 

 was constituted. Then, however, the municipality of Tarija expressed a wish 

 to be incorporated in the new state, and, despite the protests of the Argentine 

 diplomatists, supported by Bolivar's decision, the Bolivians have continued to 

 occupy the old dependency of Salta. 



On the northern and eastern plains, as well as in the slightly broken regions of 

 the divide between the Amazons and the Plata, the Bolivian territory stretches to 

 vast distances beyond the elevated plateaux which constitute Bolivia proper. At 

 present these boundless spaces have a merely nominal value, and add nothing to 

 the strength of the country ; but here as well as on the Pacific slope Bolivia has 

 lost a part of her domain. The more or less fictitious frontier between Spanish 

 and Portuguese America has never ceased to shift westwards to the advantage of 

 Brazil. Formerly the eastern boundary of Bolivia, indicated by the course of the 

 Rio Yerde, of the Guapore, and of the Itenes (Mamore), was continued along the 

 Pio Madeira to San Antonio below the rapids, whereas it now stops at the con- 

 fluence of the Mamore with the Beni, about 130 miles to the south-west. After 

 the triumph of Brazil over Paraguay, Melgarejo, President of Bolivia, surrendered 

 to Brazil the riverine zone skirting the Paraguay " the space of twenty leagues," 

 comprised between the Bahia Negra and Fort Olimpo on the right bank of the 

 river. 



Towards the south-west, however, the common frontier between Bolivia and 

 Brazil still coincides with the course of the Paraguay as far as 22° south latitude, 

 which parallel forms the conventional limit towards Argentina. On the north 

 another conventional line, drawn from the Beni confluence to the sources of the 

 Javari, corresponds to no real division, for these regions, still held by independent 

 tribes, have hitherto been visited only by a few collectors of plants, rubber and 

 sarsaparilla. 



Geographical Pesearch — Population. 

 With few exceptions, the exploration of Bolivia has been mainly the work of 

 strangers. D'Orbigny made a special study of the Bolivian regions during the 



