POPULATION— PHYSICAL FEATUEES OF BOLIVIA. 357 



contributed in recent times to determine the main geographical features, while the 

 measurements of the engineers engaged in the mines, on the roads and railways 

 have helped in the preparation of more accurate maps than those formerly in use. 



Even after the encroachments of Brazil and Chili, Bolivia remains a vast 

 domain at least four and a half times larger than the whole of the British Isles. 

 But apart from the boundless wastes of the Amazonian woodlands, known only 

 from the reports of travellers, Bolivia proper, where towns have been built, mines 

 opened and roads constructed, comprises not more than a fourth of this domain, 

 being mainly confined to the south-western region of the Andean plateaux with 

 their border ranges and surrounding valleys. 



Such are its natural resources, minerals and other products of the western 

 uplands, agricultural produce and the valuable forest growths of the eastern slopes, 

 that the inhabited section might become the privileged land of South America. 

 But these resources still lie dormant, pending the arrival of settlers, the opening 

 of highways and the development of the industries. Bolivia has been compared 

 to a " silver table standing on pillars of gold." But these very mineral treasures 

 have contributed to her impoverishment, by encouraging wasteful and indolent 

 habits and the passion of gambling. 



The population, estimated by one authority at over 2,500,000 in 1875, would 

 appear, according to the last returns, based on nearly complete censuses, to fall 

 short of 1,500,000. Wars, civil strife, the slaughter of the Indians, and especially 

 epidemics have greatly retarded the natural increase, and even at times diminished 

 the number of inhabitants. The malignant fevers which broke out amongst the 

 Indians in 1866, and which spared the whites, caused a frightful mortality, sweep- 

 ing away whole villages and leaving extensive tracts unpeopled for years. 



II. 



Physical Features. 



Although, by the late rectification of frontiers, deprived of the Western 

 Cordillera forming the outer edge of the plateau, Bolivia still comprises several 

 peaks, which, although rising at gome distance from the main axis, none the less 

 belong to the border range. It also contains spurs and buttresses and parallel 

 lateral ridges, which must be regarded as connected with the same system. Tacora 

 (Chipicani) and, farther south, Sajama (21,000 feet), Tata Sabaya, Ullullu, Tahua, 

 Sapaya, Tua, Aucasquilucha and ' Viscachillas, all stand within the Bolivian 

 frontier, although dependent on the Western Cordillera, which continues the 

 Peruvian Sieri'a and stretches southwards to the extremity of the continent. 



The Boi.iviAN Andes. 



The Andes, properly so called, which comprise the loftiest summits of Bolivia, 

 traverse this region for a distance of about eisrht desfrees of latitude. The first 



