TOPOGRAPHY OF BOLIVIA. 383 



But silver ores here occur in such quantities that a large population has been 

 attracted to the district, which is now connected by a railway with the Chilian 

 seaport of Antofagasta; the Huanchaca branch forms a junction with the main 

 Oruro line at the station of JJyimi. This is the longest of all the railways 

 ascending from the Pacific coast towards the Andean plateaux, and as the steepest 

 gradients have already been constructed, it will soon be easily continued along the 

 shores of Lake Titicaca to the Arequipa-Puno line. 



The Huanchaca mines, whose rich ores have supplied the funds required to 

 build this costly railway, were not opened till 1874, nor systematically worked 

 with proper appliances till 1880. At present they yield more silver ores than 

 all the rest of Bolivia, the output between 1877 and 1890 being valued at 

 £5,200,000, and that of the single year 1890 at £820,000. Scarcely less pro- 

 ductive are some other argentiferous lodes rediscovered in the district south of 

 Huanchaca, at Colqiicchaca, near Lake Aullagas and in the Lipez mountains. 



La Paz — Sora'ia. 



On the Amazonian slope the foremost place is taken by the city of La Paz, 

 which is the most populous in Bolivia, and which, although it has not been the 

 permanent capital, may still be regarded as the true metropolis of the republic. 

 The Bolivian Grovernment has been described as being nearly always on its travels, 

 shifting about in an erratic sort of way from Sucre to La Paz, Oruro and 

 Cochabamba, according to the vicissitudes of wars and revolutions. On the least 

 alarm generals and troops, ministers and officials with their archives and papers 

 mount their saddle-mules and clamber up hill and down dale in search of a safer 

 residence. 



A preference, however, has always been shown for La Paz, thanks to its more 

 advanced position towards the outer world, The attraction of Europe, which is 

 reached b}' a somewhat direct route down the Amazons and across the Atlantic, 

 has made La Paz the busiest place in Bolivia. Situated at a height of 12,465 

 feet, in the broad, steeply inclined gorge through which the great inland sea of 

 the Titicaca depression formerly sent its overflow to the Amazons, and which is 

 still watered by one of the chief headstreams of the Beni, La Paz is separated 

 from the lake only by a sill with a gentle westerly slope. 'J'he long and rugged 

 easterly incline has been surmounted b}^ a narrow zigzag track, and heavy works 

 have been projected to bring La Paz into communication with the Huanchaca 

 and the Arequipa railways, as well as with the lacustrine port of Chililaya, where 

 is situated the Bolivian custom-house on the south-east side of the lake. 



Cliuquiaho was the name of the group of Indian dwellings which Alonzo de 

 Mendoza replaced in the middle of the sixteenth century by the Spanish city, 

 bearing the religious title of Nuestra Sehora de la Paz, " Our Lady of Peace." 

 After the War of Independence, which was here begun by the revolt of 1809, it 

 took the p itriotic name of La Paz de Ayacucho, in honour of the final victory of 

 the national arms. At the point where the city rises in araphitheatrical form on 



