Bolivia

a republic of South America. It is situated in the Andean region north of Argentina and west of Brazil. Since 1878 it has been cut off from the Pacific by the seizure of the coast region by Chile. The area is estimated at 567,420 square miles, somewhat greater than that of all our Atlantic seaboard states combined. It is convenient to think of the country as divided into three physical regions. They are: The southern half of Lake Titicaca and the plains that lie about it; the mountains that pen in this basin on all sides; and a third region east of the Andes. Lake Titicaca is 12,505 feet above the sea. It drains an area 500 miles in length by 100 in width but it has no outlet save a stream that runs southward at times for 150 miles or so and loses itself in shallow salty lakes. The surrounding mountain chains are among the grandest in the world, rivaling the Himalayas. A railway from the coast climbs through a pass 14,765 feet high to reach the valley. The region has large mineral wealth. The silver mines of Potosi were long reckoned the richest in the world. They have yielded first and last over $2,000,000,000. Bolivia yet ranks fifth among the silver producing countries. There are rich mines of gold, tin, bismuth, copper, iron, and lead. Marble, sulphur, borax, and asphaltum are found in abundance. Beautiful emeralds, topazes, amethysts, and opals abound. Roads are wanting. Files of surefooted mules or llamas thread the passes, packing supplies and the products of the country. La Paz and Sucre, the largest towns, are the centers of mining districts.

Although reputed as a mountainous, mineral-producing country. Bolivia has grazing districts equal to Texas, agricultural plains rivaling Kansas, and forests exceeding those that once covered the Ohio Valley. Its territory extends eastward from the Andes for a thousand miles into the basins of the Amazon and the Paraguay. Forests of rubber trees, cedar, mahogany, and dyewoods stand waiting for future railways.

A small part of the population is of Spanish descent, a second element is descended from the people once governed by the Incas and subdued by Pizarro. The great majority belong to unrelated Indian tribes unacquainted with each other and practically unknown to the world. Agriculture is carried on in the most primitive way. A pole laid across the heads of the oxen just behind the horns, and lashed to them by strips of cowhide, serves as a yoke. For a plow, a pole with a hook at one end is lashed to the yoke. A flat piece of iron is lashed to the hook. After the ground has been scratched by this primitive contrivance, it is pulverized and harrowed by dragging a beam or tree top over it. The undeveloped capacity for grain, vegetables, hay, fruit, sugar, rice, coffee, beef and dairy products, wool, and mutton is said to be incredible.

The principal exports are precious metals, gems, rubber, cocoa, coffee, and wool. The chief imports are cloth and clothing, hardware, and machines.

The Catholic faith is the recognized religion of Bolivia. Nearly all the people, Indians included, belong to this church, though others are unmolested. La Paz, the capital, has 60,000 people. There are less than a thousand schools in the entire country. Perhaps we cannot sum up conditions in Bolivia better than by saying there is a small, reasonably intelligent, Spanish element, with colleges, libraries, telegraphs, and newspapers, but that nine-tenths of the country, or even more, is in the condition of an American Indian reservation.