Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/698

 BOUVIA

628

BOLIVIA

portant mining centre of Oruro has a little over i5,UU0 inhabitants.

Natural FEAxrRES and Resources. — The south- western third of the countrj- hes at a great altitude above the Pacific Ocean. The Puna, or table-land comprised within the Departments of La Paz, Oruro, and Potosi, has an average elevation of nearly 13.000 feet. Two lofty mountain ranges form natural breastworks to Boh\-ia: in the West, the Coast Cordillera (Chilian frontier) and, in the East, the BoU\-ian chain, consisting of the Andes of Carabaya and .\polobamba towards the North, and the Royal Cordillera or central Boli\"ian range, mth its southern ramifications and prolongations to the Argentine hnes. The mountainous section of Boli%'ia has no important rivers. Its drainage is in the North to Lake Titicaca, which itself empties to the South into the Lago (Lake) Poopo, which has no visible outlet. Towards the East mountain streams de- scend abruptly into the Basin of the Amazon. But the mountainous section has the two largest, and also most elevated lakes of South America: Titicaca,

able ores. Gold is not generally distributed, anj is extracted mainly by "placer" mining, as for in- stance at Chuquiaguillo, near La Paz. In the first half of the nineteenth centurj' the Tipuani district, so difficult of access, was productive of gold of great fineness, and in quantities verj- considerable for that time, and the Tipuani mines are even now far from exhaiLsted. Quartz gold is worked at Araca. Silver is very plentiful, and is extensively extracted in places. Native copper is mined at Corocoro, where it crops out in veins of unusual richness and width, but other copper ores are found in abundance also. Of late it has been estabhshed that Bolivia is probably one of the countries in the world, where tin (cas- siterite) is most abundant, and the same may be said of bismuth. While on the eastern slope of the Andes the existence of gold and other mineral wealth has been proved, the attention of prospectors and miners has been turned chiefly towards the moun- tains themselves. The processes of mining and treatment of the ores are still, in many places, rudimentary and primitive, but with the influx of

Mission Con-vent on the Rives Beni

12,500 feet above sea-level, 138 miles long from north- west to south-east, and of varjmig width, and Poopo, farther south. The eastern two-thirds of Bohvia, that section lying towards the Atlantic, is traversed by mighty streams (e. g. the Beni and ilamore) and their affluents, all of which rise in the central Boli\-ian chain. Bolivia has properly but two seasons: winter, corresponding io time to summer and part of fall and spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and summer em- bracing the rest of the year.

The mineral resources of this repubhc are known to be verj' important, but as yet they have been only superficially prospected. Difficulty of access to the countrj', un-settled poUtical conditions in former times, and cimibersome, primitive transportation have been the main cause of this backwardness. The upper regions of the Amazonian Basin are known to contain coal, but there attention has been given chiefly to the vegetable resoiu'ces, the India rubber tree having rendered possible the establishment of a highly important and growing industrj'. The same section, also, produces both coffee and sugar, and to-day the coca shrub is a staple, while caUsaya bark is returning into favour. The highlands in the departments of La Paz, Oruro, Potosi, parts of Cochabamba and Tarija abound in a variety of valu-

foreign capital and the introduction of machinery, conditions are rapidly impro^•ing. On the shores of Lake Titicaca bituminous coal is foimd both east and west of that lake. Besides mining, the chief industrj' of the mountain region is agriculture. As this branch is almost entirely in the hands of the Indians, it will be treated in connexion with the ethnography of Bolivia.

The Amazon Basin and its forests, as well as open spaces with high grass, are full of animal life. The large rivers, as everj-where in tropical South America, teem with fish, crocochles, snakes, and other am- phibia, and the manatee also occurs. Aquatic birds, parrots, etc., are abundant. The favma of the moimtain districts is more in e\'idence, but much poorer in species and individuals, than in the adjacent countries. The llama and its congeners, the alpaca, vicima, and guanaco, belong to the Bolivian fauna. The llama and alpaca are domesti- cated by the Indian. Beasts of prey are not numer- ous and are foimd only within the limits of arboreal vegetation. Lower down the great ant-eater is occasionally seen, the puma and the bear {Ursus ornatus). In southern Boh\'ia, as well as in the eastern sections, the American ostrich occurs, and a tiny armadillo has its home in the cold, arid Puna,