Benefits Secuked by the Railroad. 345 



way around the eighty leagues of formidable rapids which 

 separate Bolivia from the Lower Madeira is now in proc- 

 ess of construction by the Madeira and Mamore Railroad 

 Company. The track extends from San Antonio to Gua- 

 jararairim, a distance of 180 miles. This is one of the 

 most important enterprises on foot; but great difficulties 

 have been encountered — as the scarcity of laborers, the at- 

 tacks of Indians, and the prevalence of epidemics. The 

 company, however, in spite of all obstacles, declare that 

 this ereat connectins: link must and shall be built. As 

 soon as completed, the National Bolivian Navigation Com- 

 pany will be ready to put a fleet of steamers and barges 

 on the Mamore and Guapore. Both Brazil and Bolivia 

 are interested in this railway, and have conceded to the 

 company over one million acres of territory along the line, 

 ■fhe completion of this iron road will remove the great 

 stumbling-block to the development of half a million 

 square miles of beautiful country, and prove of no little 

 direct value to the commerce of the United States. For 

 each country has what the other wants. Bolivia needs our 

 skilled labor and machinery, our cotton goods, hardware, 

 and agricultural implements ; and we would like her Peru- 

 vian bark, coffee, and cacao, which now have to climb the 

 mountains of La Paz (15,800 feet), cross the desert to the 

 Pacific, and round Cape Horn, at the average cost of $200 

 a ton. Vast must be the wealth of Northwestern Bolivia 

 to have induced Peru to expend $42,000,000 on a railroad 

 to reach it. When the Madeira is made available by the 

 railroad around the falls, and the railroads of Arequipa 

 and Cordova shall stretch into the borders, Bolivia will be- 

 come the commercial centre of the continent. Already 

 Bolivia holds four fifths of the entire population of the 

 Amazons basin. 



One hundred miles west of the Madeira enters the Rio 



