that gives pleasure, the leafy and productive almond tree, the aromatic gum, and the palm, ranging from the highest to the lowest, from the royal to the smallest. Hidden riches exist in these lands, grateful and filled with perfume, gum and wax abundant and varied. Here are found cabinet woods, medicinal plants, and products rich and appreciable, and many other valuable productions, without mentioning the great mineral wealth of the district.
This part of Bolivia is watered by the greatest rivers of the Republic. Chief among them are the Beni and Mamoré, which form the Madeira, the former having its headwaters in the eastern slopes of the Cordillera of the department of La Paz, and the latter in the departments of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz; the Itenez or Guapore, formed by the rivers which descend from the northern districts of Santa Cruz and from the province of Matto Grosso, Brazil; the Madre de Dios, which rises in the mountains range of Paucartambo, to the east of Cuzco, Peru, and flows into the Beni; and the Purus, which rises farther north in the same general range and flows direct to the Amazon. Although these rivers offer every facility for steam navigation, their use is limited for the most part to Indian balsas or canoes.
At present, steam navigation is applied to the following rivers: First, the Beni from a point above the rapids of Esperanza, located about latitude 10° 40' S., on up to the rubber districts of Salinas, the port of Reyes, a distance of about 130 miles; second, the Rio Madre de Dios from its confluence with the river Beni up to the rubber establishment of El Carmen, about 200 miles from Villa Bella; third, the Mamoré River from Villa Bella, the head of the rapids, to Trinidad, a distance of about 300 miles, and thence as far as its confluence with the Chapare. During the rainy season, navigation is continued on up the Chapare to the port of Coni, in the department of Cochabamba, and by the river Sara or Piray to Cuatro Ojos, in the department of Santa Cruz. The various affluents of these rivers are navigated by the Indians, who, rowing against a current of 2 miles per hour, ascend them
