“In spite of the tropical location the climatic conditions seem entirely favorable to the settlement of the region [the foothill border of the plain] by white men. Its backwardness appears to be mainly a result of its remoteness from the estab- lished centers of civilization. This remoteness, however, can- not delay much longer the settlement of this land by energetic and ambitious pioneers. A preliminary survey for a railroad to run from Embarcacién to Santa Cruz by way of Yacuiba, Villamontes, and Charagua has already been completed. The Bolivian government, however, is opposed to the construction of such a railroad until the completion of the Cochabamba- Santa Cruz Railroad, also en proyecto, because of the fear of in- creasing the already close co-ordination of eastern Bolivia with Argentina before the contacts of eastern Bolivia with western Bolivia are perfected. Both these railroad projects, however, will probably be consummated within ten or fifteen years,”[1]
At Embarcacién J interviewed the agent of the principal commercial company and obtained from him invaluable in- formation; and while there I also met for the first time Baron Erland Nordenskidld, who, with his wife, was just starting out on a third journey into the Chaco to make a detailed study of the Indians and their culture. He had also traveled along the border between forest and grassland on the Bolivian-Argen- tinian frontier in 1901-1902.[2]
A Route Across the Chaco
I was fortunate enough to have as a traveling companion on the way to Embarcación a railway engineer who had crossed
- ↑ K. F. Mather: Along the Andean Front in Southeastern Bolivia, Geogr, Rev., Vol. 12, 1922, pp. 353-374; reference on p. 374. Compare the situation as regards Trangandean lines between Chile and Argentina, p. 97.
- ↑ Baron Nordenskidld, in his article “Iravels on the Boundarics of Bolivia and Argentina’ (Geogr. Journ., Vol. 21, 1903, pp. 510-525), gives an account of his first journey in South America, where altogether he has spent six years in archeological and ethnographical exploration. On the Chaco region he has written “Indianerleben (El Gran Chaco)” (Leipzig, 1012), and Chaco tribes are dealt with in the first two volumes of his “Comparative Ethnographical Studies” (An Ethno-geographical Analysis of the Material Culture of Two Indian Tribes in the Gran Chaco, Giteborg, 1918; The Changes in the Material Culture of Two Indian Tribes under the Influence of New Surroundings, Gétcborg, 1920).
