FoEEiGN Enterpkise IN Peetj. 447 



The gauge of all the roads is four feet eight and a half 

 inches, save that of Chirnbote, which is three feet. The 

 rolling stock is American, the cars coming from Gilbert, 

 Bush & Co., Troy, and the locomotives (mostly Rogers's) 

 fi'om Paterson. A locomotive on the track costs from 

 $20,000 to $25,000, and a first-class car $5500. The ties 

 are from Oregon, the rails from England, the diamond 

 drills from America, worked by Rand & Waring's com- 

 pressor, and the stationary machinery from Leeds. The 

 shops and depots generally are made of English galvanized 

 iron, the shovels are Ames's, and the iron water-tanks are 

 Pitt's patent. The engineers are invariably, I believe, En- 

 glish-speaking, and the laborers are Chinese, Cholos, and 

 Chilenians. Peruvians may be proud of their guano ; but 

 certainly they can not hold up their heads when they re- 

 member that not a thing has entered into the construction 

 of their railways but what is foreign, save, perhaps, dirt, 

 stones, lime, and powder, which last article, so indispensa- 

 ble, Mr. Meiggs is obliged by contract to buy of tlie gov- 

 ernment. The timber, iron, rolling stock, labor, fuel, and 

 nearly all the food, are imported. Even the money which 

 pays for it is foreign — bank-bills engraved in New York, 

 and Bolivian silver ! 



It will be a long time before the government will realize 

 any thing directly from these railroads. The CJiimbote, 

 passing through a developed mining region, and the Ilo, 

 draining the vineyards of Moquehua, will soon be self-sup- 

 porting. But such a costly enterprise as the Oroya can do 

 nothing but expend, until it is extended to the Amazons ; 

 while as to the Arequipa, one is in doubt whether to won- 

 der most at the skill of the engineers or the hardihood of 

 the government in ordering the gigantic undertaking, for 

 it passes through an utterly profitless region — one village 

 in one hundred miles — over sterile pampas and black pa- 



