386 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



district about the source of the Mizgue affluent of the Rio Grande. But the 

 difficulty or lack of communications is counterbalanced by its excellent soil and 

 climate. The well-cultivated plain yields wheat in abundance, as well as other 

 produce utilised by the numerous local industries — woollen and cotton spinning 

 mills, tanneries, soap and starch works. The trade of this flourishing department 

 is estimated at one-fourth of the exchanges of the whole republic. Its chief 

 exports are coca-leaves, cereals, flour, horned cattle, wool, and beer, taken in 

 exchange for cotton fabrics, mostly from North America. The neighbouring 

 mines are no longer worked. 



Santa Cruz de la Sierra is so called, not because of its elevation, for it stands 

 at the entrance of the plains not more than 1,450 feet above the sea, but in 

 memory of an upland town from which the inhabitants removed to this place. 

 The neighbouring E,io Piray (Sara) is not navigable, but the Rio Grande, a little 

 farther east, is accessible to boats, and well-beaten tracks radiate in all directions 

 across the savannas and forests. Thus Santa Cruz occupies a central position as 

 the starting-point for all travellers proceeding eastwards in the direction of 

 Chiquitos, Matto Grosso and Paraguay. 



PoTosi — Sucre. 



Potosi was two centuries ago the most populous city not only in Bolivia, but 

 in the New World. Despite its great elevation of 13,325 feet, its prodigious 

 mining wealth had attracted a population of 160,000 to a place which now ranks 

 only as the fourth city of the republic. Of the children born at this tremendous 

 altitude, some die at once, while others remain blind or deaf. Founded in 1545 

 under the name of Villa Imperial, it stands at the foot of the bare, yellow Cerro 

 de Potosi (15,380 feet), which was in times past described as a silver cone, and 

 which was in fact traversed by powerful argentiferous lodes in every direction. 

 It had been transformed by over five thousand galleries into a vast underground 

 labyrinth ; but the excavations have for the most part collapsed, while the deepest 

 pits have been flooded by water. Nevertheless mining operations, formerly so 

 productive, have not yet been entirely abandoned ; the annual output is still 

 valued at £160,000, which is an insignificant sum compared with the total yield, 

 exceeding £320,000,000, according to the lowest estimates. Potosi alone would 

 appear to have supplied the world with one-twelfth of the precious metals 

 which have found their way into general circulation since the discovery of 

 America. 



The now partly-ruined city contains sumptuous buildings, eloquent witnesses 

 to the vast treasures at the command of their builders. The mint, which is no 

 longer used, terminates in a magnificent open roof, the timber for which was 

 transported across the crests of the Andes from the forests of the Rio Salado in 

 Argentina, some 600 miles aAva}^ The aqueducts are also remarkable monuments 

 of those halcyon times, and the dammed-up lakes, fed by the snows of the 

 Andacahua Sierra, now yield far more water than is required by the inhabitants, 



