in freight to the lake steamers, during the past twelve months, nearly $130,000. This represents only a portion of the traffic. It must be observed that speculative and whimsical considerations have in no instance been instrumental in creating railroad systems in South America, but that these have been called into existence in response to the needs of a commerce previously developed into considerable magnitude. In Argentine two distinct centres of trade and civilization, one in the west and north-west, the other along the Atlantic sea-board, required convenient communication, for political as well as commercial reasons. There has also always been trade with Chili, in spite of the obstructing Andes. In 1890 this exchange of commodities reached a total value of $2,039,000. The single Brazilian system was demanded by extensive coffee and mining interests. The Chilian roads served as outlets for agricultural and mining regions; and the principal Peruvian lines were intended to open up the mines and agricultural lands of the central and eastern districts, as well as to attract the commerce of Bolivia. Pioneer roads, built for the sake of creating new centres of industry, have formed no part of the South American railroad programme, and it is doubtful whether such a plan would meet with any success for many years to come. This is not denying the possibility of success, for a wise colonization scheme, supported by sufficient capital, could accomplish it, but colonization enterprises have hitherto been peculiarly unfortunate in the Latin republics, and railroads have not produced effects in these countries analogous to those in the North. In fact the commercial side of a railroad problem in South America involves considerations which would not logically occur to a northern financier, accustomed as he is to the rush for new lands, to the springing up of cities, and to the rapid expansion of trade, upon the inauguration of a new line. South American life is not keyed to so high a pitch as ours of the North. Moreover, the legitimate effect of the railroads has been rendered nugatory to a large extent by the apathy of the foreign shareholders, who cared less than they ought about encouraging enterprises that should enhance the traffic on their lines, so long as the governments made prompt remittances to London of the accrued interest upon their invested capital. At the same time it is true that prospective business must be estimated upon a different basis than in Anglo-Saxon countries, and the actual needs of an immediate commerce must determine the railroad development of the Latin continent. A study of these exigencies then ought to demonstrate what hope there is for the realization of an intercontinental railroad. There is probably no agricultural product in the world which will not find a soil and climate congenial to its growth in South America. Every species of useful mineral is also found abundantly, and widely disseminated over the continent. Likewise unlimited water power is awaiting the manufacturer in every one of the southern republics. With the extension of routes of inter-communication between these states their commercial independence with regard to many important staples will follow as a natural consequence. The first steps in this direction will be an exchange of the cereals, potatoes, legumes, and other vegetables of the South, and of the Andean plateaus and valleys, for the rice, sugar, coffee, cocoa, and other products of the strictly tropical regions. The completion of a system of roads from the Argentine Republic across Bolivia into Peru will mark the beginning of a new era, when inter-state trade will begin to prove a factor of large value in South American affairs. The famous Lima and Oroya Railway, soon to be in operation across the Andes, will inaugurate days of plenty and prosperity for Peru by admitting the varied agricultural productions of the fertile Montaña to the starving western coast. Wisdom of a certain sort lay in that proposition of a French company to construct a road from Bogotá, in the central plateau of Colombia, across to Venezuela. The idea may have been premature, but it was conceived in a clear prescience of the needs of the future. Neither can it be denied that a railroad connecting the central plateau of Ecuador with Colombia and the Caribbean Sea by way of Popayán and the Rio Cauca, developing the immense dormant resources of this chain of interior valleys, will prove of great importance. On the route are deposits of coal and iron, and world-famous mines of gold and silver; the climate presents every gradation from the steamy tropics of the north coast to the temperate airs of the high plateaus; the fruits and grains of every zone are produced; sheep are grown in the elevated lands, and cotton flourishes in the middle portion; while the splendid water power of the Rio Cauca could serve a manufacturing industry as large as that of Massachusetts. A railroad is already being built by an American from Buenaventura into the Cauca Valley, with Popayán as its ultimate objective point, so that this plan of development can scarcely be considered as a visionary dream to be realized only in some now nebulous future. Indeed the whole scheme of modern transportation facilities through out the north-western portion of South America may be projected in conformity with the indications of an existing traffic, which seems to be the only safe method to pursue in the southern continent. The proof of this is found in an examination of the local trade of Colombia, which country in the year 1889 imported from Ecuador no less than $114,000, and exported $55,000. We must bear in mind that every pound of the merchandise which these sums represent was laboriously transported hundreds of miles on mule-back over wretched roads in the Andes. Some of it came by sea, but this was only from port to port, and the inevitable mule journey must be made to bring it to its final market in the interior towns. The governments interested, recognizing their opportunity to swell the traffic, and thus hasten the construction of railroads, have just arranged a treaty whereby goods crossing the frontier between Colombia and Ecuador shall in future be exempt from customs restrictions. There must surely be a powerful demand to encourage such a commerce under such tremendous difficulties. Even after witnessing this phenomenon we are hardly prepared to expect an interchange of commodities between Colombia and Peru, and yet the official figures for 1889 show a movement toward Peru of products to the value of $5,636, and Colombian importations from Peru of $24,663. In each case this commerce is independent of that from Colon and Panama. Turning to Venezuela we find that she took Colombian products in 1889 to the amount of $70,162, and returned to Colombia $16,540. Here again the same difficulties of transportation might naturally be expected to place an absolute embargo upon commercial intercourse. Evidence favoring rail communication northward into Central America is afforded by the total commerce of Colombia, exclusive of the Isthmus, with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Salvador, and Mexico, which amounts to $150,000 per annum. She also has a trade with the West Indies of over $600,000, which will benefit railroads into the interior-the goal of all Colombian business. Venezuelan commerce likewise presents some curious features. While enjoying a large, steady trade with the Islands, she makes occasional spasmodic movements toward dealings with her sister republics, such as a ten-thousand-dollar trade with Mexico in 1886, continuing fairly well into 1888; an eight-hundred-dollar exchange with Ecuador in 1887, small, but noteworthy; and, singularly enough, an importation of $11,000 from Uruguay in 1886. While of little intrinsic value, these serve as an index to a tendency which might produce important results under more favorable conditions. Colombia, however, remains the pivotal state, upon whose development depends the fate of rail communication between the three Americas. She is only in her commercial infancy, but she is destined to a commanding importance in the future. Her trade has swelled from an aggregate of $19,000,000 in 1885 to $26,000,000 in 1890, in spite of mules and bad roads. Railroads are building in many parts, and the gaps between them must inevitably be filled in, forming systems extending into the South, and terminating at some point on the Caribbean Sea. Cartagena would seem to be marked out by nature for this distinction, having a splendid harbor, being near the Magdalena River, which is at present the great highway into the heart of Colombia, and possessing what is of foremost importance-a salubrious climate. Here is the natural northern terminus of any great system of South American railroads, and here would necessarily arise a great distributing centre-the South American metropolis. This of course is allowing that the great gap between Quito and the Peruvian roads will be closed up. It may seem unlikely to happen soon, and the opening of the Nicaragua Canal will most likely retard it for some years. On the other hand the government of Ecuador has granted a concession for a road from Machala, on the Pacific, to Cuenca, in the interior, which point is not far from Quito. The report of the United States surveying party, now in the field, will reveal the conditions to be met in going south from Cuenca into the valley of the Upper Amazon, or Marañon. The distance at least is not great. Another 150 miles eastward will serve to reach the head of navigation on the Amazon, at the site of ancient Borja, where the river escapes from the mountain regions through the gorge known as the Pongo de Manseriche. Vessels of five feet draught can reach this point, and singular as it may seem, the products of Eastern Peru, by coming to the Pongo, and thence northward by rail to Cartagena, could reach New York by a journey nearly 2,000 miles shorter than by way of Pará, Brazil. The charter of the Payta-Piura road in Peru provides for its extension to Borja-a route not only feasible, but comparatively easy-and the Peruvian Corporation has recognized the desirability of rail connection from Trujillo, via Cajamarca, to Chachapoyas, which will doubtless be undertaken after the Lima and Oroya Railway is finished. This all means that there is an important central region of northern Peru which must ere long be penetrated by railroads, and when this is done the most embarrassing part of the South American trunk line problem will have been solved. The |