and in the Peruvian ports of Puno on Lake Titicaca and Mol- lendo on the Pacific.
Possible Development in the Puna de Atacama
Though there is no corresponding prospect of the develop- ment of alpaca pastures in the Puna, it would be possible to extend the range of lamas and sheep at intermediate levels below the drier tracts or on their borders where a better type of grass may eventually be introduced. The time will surely come when the occupation of the cattle-farming and grazing lands of the Argentine will have been completed, and these vast tracts of little-used mountain pastures will then become a positive assct. The process is even now going on and is il- lustrated by the figures of land values given on page 210, land having increased in value in the Calchaqui valley several hun- dred per cent in a decade through the increasing use of pasture lands. The government must take the lead. The sinking of wells, the recovery or storage of water, and the improvement of the pasture flora is beyond the capacity of the individual, who cannot turn it into immediate account in his day and generation, partly because of the large capital investment, partly because of the length of time over which the experi- ment must run.
At best the Puna and its bordering valleys will be a country of relatively thin population for all time. Should the nitrate deposits decline in importance on account of the development of synthetic nitrate processes in the temperate zone near the seats of industry where water power is available in large amounts (compare p. 87), the pastoral villages of the Puna and its borders would for a time also decline. Of borax de- velopment there may be some in time, but borax is not a rare mineral. There is only a remote chance of some development taking place through minerals yet to be discovered, for as a whole the Puna is a region of voleanic rock of a type in which mineral deposits of commercial value are not found.
