BOLIVIA'S AWAKENING.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13496, 16 June 1914, Page 2

BOLIVIA'S AWAKENING.

Bolivia is an inland country, until lately very difficult to reach from outside. By tho loss of Mollendo, on the Pacific.coast, to Peru, and of Acre,, on the upper waters of the Purus, to Brazil, no direct access to the oceans was left but the apparently open door of the rivers Madre de Dios,. Beni and Mamor©, leading to the Madeira, tho Amazon, and thereby to the Atlantic. Ocean steamers can sail up the rivers to San Antonio, which is not far from the frontiers of Bolivia, but from there a long series of cataracts begins, and the surrounding country, through which the river Madeira flows, is hidden in dense jungle. The open door was not really open, therefore, and owing to the natural obstacles, the magnificent possibilities of Bolivia have been greatly hindered in their development. An idea of the risks to be encountered by the daring navigators who attempt to shoot the rapids of the Madeira in charge of merchandise may be gained when it is known that almost fifty per cent, is lost every year. For a long time efforts have been made to skirt the rapids by means of a railway. Two unsuccessful attempt were made, but at last the principal portibn has been completed, and now Bolivia is really accessible to the outside world. The Madeira-Mamore railroad is considered to be a remarkable achievement in tropical engineering. Another outlet, the railway from La Paa to Arica, the Chilian port on the Pacific, has just been finished by Chile as part of the indemnity due to Bolivia for the loss of its seacoast. It is three hundred miles long. As soon as Bolivia has completed its internal main lines of railroad its future as a united, compact, and powerful country is absolutely assured, for it has great natural advantages in extraordinary variety. Railroad., building, '^s may easily be understood from a study of the nature of the country —high mountains and plateaus, and tropical plains of dense jungle^—has been very slow. In 1892 President Arce formally opened the first railroad, and now there are 1500 miles in operation, 280 miles under construction, and 1100 planned.