The New Student's Reference Work/La Paz

La Paz (lä päz′), the chief town of a department of Bolivia, South America, lies at the foot of a valley, 11,952 feet above sea-level and is 42 miles from Lake Titicaca. It has a college, seminary, medical school and a handsome, unfinished cathedral; but, the houses being small and mostly built of mud, the city does not present an attractive appearance. The inhabitants, numbering 78,910, are almost all Indians or half-breeds, and carry on a large trade in copper and alpaca wool. The capital of the department is Sucré (population 27,080). The seat of government, however, changes. The department of La Paz (area 53,800 square miles) in 1909 had a population estimated at 516,914.