Page:Bolivia (1893; Bureau of the American Republics).djvu/62



The natural wealth of Bolivia is far greater than is generally supposed. The country is not only rich in gold and silver, but has an abundance of copper and tin of a superior quality. Rich deposits of bismuth, mercury, platinum, lead, iron, zinc, nickel, alum, sulphur, and some coal are met with, although thus tar no important coal deposits have been discovered. Precious stones, chiefly emeralds, and opals, also lapis lazuli, which is a species of mineral of a fine azure blue, valued for ornamental work, hyacinth, agate, alabaster, jasper, marble, granite, slate, pumice stone, porphyry, basalt, chalk, borax, common salt, magnesia, etc., are also found. In the maritime province of Atacama, which has been in the possession of Chile since the war of 1879-1882, are vast deposits of nitrate of soda and guano. The animal kingdom is unusually varied and interesting, while the vegetable kingdom is extremely rich and abundant.

Commenting upon the vast and unavailed of wealth of the country, as he observed it in 1869, George Earl Church, in his report heretofore referred to, says:

I found millions of sheep, llamas, and alpacas browsing upon the mountain sides, and not a cargo of wool was exported; vast herds of cattle roamed the plains, and yet an oxhide was worth scarcely more than a pound of leather in the European markets; hundreds of tons of the richest coffee in the world were rotting on the bushes, and only about ten tons per annum were sent abroad as a rare delicacy; abundant crops of sugar in the river districts were considered a misfortune by the planter, because there was no market; the valleys of Cocha-