390 



SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIOXS. 



" bark strippers," had no occupation except that of searching the forests in all 

 directions in quest of the finest trees. A period of systematic culture had even 

 succeeded to that of the reckless destruction of the sjDontaneous growths in the 

 forests of the Yungas valleys. Four million trees had been planted, of which 

 500,000 had arrived at maturity, when the propagation of the plant in India, 

 Java and other region?, arrested the progress of the industry in Bolivia, where the 

 absence of communications made all competition hopeless. The bark fell rapidly in 



Fig. 147. — Chief Minebal Deposits of Bolivia. 

 Scale 1 : 18,000,000. 



310 Miles. 



price, and the planters were compelled in many districts to give up the struggle 

 and turn their attention to the cultivation of coca ; in 1885 the coca crop was 

 valued at £343,000, and some of the exquisitely-flavoured Yungas coffee has also 

 begun to reach the European markets. 



But cinchona has been chiefly replaced by rubber, and this new industry has 

 done more than scientific zeal to forward the exploration of the eastern streams 

 flowing to the Madeira or directly to the Amazons. In the basin of the Madre de 

 Dies the rubber -seekers are already acquainted with all the valleys, and have 



