of more than 350 miles, their adjacent districts are reasonably certain to become the scenes of great commercial activity. The great copper-mining district of Corocoro and the silver and tin mining districts of Oruro, even with their present limited development, can furnish an enormous traffic for this line. When, however, these, in common with the extensive silver and lead districts of Sotalaya to the north and the rich gold fields beyond, are made to yield their metals in proportion to their capacity, these sacred waters of the Incas will be freighted with enormous contributions from Bolivia to the world's mineral and industrial wealth.
THE MONTAÑA OR EASTERN DIVISION.
Eastern Bolivia comprises all the territory east of the Andes and extending from the Pilcomayo River on the south to the northern limit of the Republic. It embraces the extensive departments of Santa Cruz and Beni, and the tropical and semi-tropical provinces of La Paz, Cochabamba and Chuquisaca. This is the region of the great tropical forests and navigable rivers of Bolivia. The country is generally level, rising almost imperceptibly from an altitude of 300 feet along the Paraguay River to 3,000 feet above sea level along the foot hills of the Cordillera. These low tropical plains, which seem to be a continuation of the Argentine pampas, inclose vast territories of prodigious fertility and endless forests of valuable timber of the varieties already mentioned, and, according to Col. George Earl Church, an eminent New York engineer, are traversed by not less than 3,000 miles of rivers adapted in a high degree to steamboat traffic, which converge like the arms of a fan upon the head of the falls of the Madeira to make this the main affluent of the Amazon.
To these 3,000 miles of navigable waters flowing north to the Atlantic, must be added the navigable outlets afforded by the Paraguay and the Pilcomayo flowing south to the same ocean.
The principal Bolivian affluents of the Madeira are four in
