shoot far to the eastward until they meet the parallel ranges of Brazil in the great province of Matto Grosso. Interspersed among these "Cordilleras" are great separate groups, swelling and tumbling aloft, and crowned with eternal snow. A great elevated table-land, about 13,000 feet high, and held between the two grand ridges of the Andes, extends almost from the northern confine of the Argentine Republic north-west to the frontier of Peru. The cold bare grass-lands of the plateau are known as "punas." Here great herds of the llama and its varieties

the alpaca and vicuña-find sustenance. Lake Titicaca (3,220 square miles) is situated on the table-land of the same name the highest in the world except that of Tibet. Here is also one of the chief seats of the present Bolivian people, just as in former and happier days it was the home of the ancient Inca race.

3. All the water-courses to the east of this table-land flow into the Atlantic. Some flow southwards into the Paraguay branch of the Plata. To the north and east we find three great streams, affluents of the Madeira branch of the Amazon. They pour into the Madeira a wealth of waters in no way inferior to the volume of the Mississippi.

4. All travellers attest to the climate of Bolivia being one of the healthiest in the world. No rain, or next to none, falls on the western side of the Andes; hence a great portion of the country is desert, and travelling in the highest regions is dangerous, not only from the cold blasts of air which sweep over them, but from the sudden storms which often overwhelm the exposed wayfarer. But in the lower regions the climate is delightful. The chief industries are agriculture and mining, though there are some cotton and woollen manufactures. To an elevation of 10,000 feet the eastern slopes of the Andes are covered with lofty forest trees, the timber of many being of exceeding beauty. The potato, banana, maize, wheat, barley, and rice, are among the products. Of the fruits, there are found oranges, lemons, olives, figs, pine-apples, pears, apples, plums, and numerous other varieties. Cinnamon, indigo, and cotton, grow wild, and in great abundance.

Tobacco is also extensively cultivated, and also cocoa, or betel, the leaves of which are chewed by the Indians all over the country for the sake of the sustaining property they undoubtedly possess. Dye-woods, dyes, and drugs, together with silver and guano, are the chief exports. Gold, silver, and copper are the chief mineral products. The silver mines of this country are (next to those of Mexico) the richest in the world.

5. The foreign trade of this productive region is not large, owing to the difficulties of transit to the coast. Hitherto it has all passed through the port of Cobija, or the Peruvian port of Arica, the goods being carried on the backs of mules over nearly 500 miles of mountains and desert sands, where water is hard to obtain, and food for man and beast still more difficult to procure. The people are now turning their attention towards the Amazon as the true outlet of their vast and fertile territory. The rapids of the Madeira are the only impediments to a free navigation from the mouth of the Amazon into the heart of Bolivia. The chief exports are gold, silver, copper, vicuña and sheep's wool, spices, tobacco, and medicinal drugs.

6. Sucre is the present political capital of Bolivia, but La Paz, on Lake Titicaca, is the largest town and the great trading centre. Potosi, a decaying town, is the mining centre.

7. The Argentine Republic, except in the north-west, is a land of grassy plains. It has a gentle south-east slope from the Andes to the Atlantic, and more than three-fourths of its half-a-million square miles is in the basin of the La Plata river.*

8. The climate is for the most part pleasant and healthy, and the rainfall is small. The rain, as a rule, is produced only by the blustering south-west winds, called "pamperos." The rains brought by these winds are very beneficial for agricultural purposes, and for dispersing noxious vapours and exhalations, but at times they raise great clouds of dust, which fly across the plains. In the

* See Lesson lxviii.

northern portions of the country, where the rainfall is greater and the temperature higher, the vegetation begins to assume a tropical character, and forest trees are abundant. The vegetable productions are those of temperate and sub-tropical regions. The great wealth of this republic, however, lies in the vast herds of cattle and horses, and flocks of sheep, which feed on the grassy plains. In the province of Buenos Ayres alone it is computed that there are 45,000,000 sheep, 6,000,000 cattle, 3,000,000 horses. The mountains of the north-western provinces are rich in minerals. Gold, silver, nickel, copper, tin, lead, and iron, are found, besides marble and precious stones. The manufactures are unimportant. Wool, hides, and tallow, are exported in vast quantities, but woollen goods and leather are imported. Salt is plentiful in some districts, but is mostly imported from Spain. 9. The population, like the area, is uncertain. It probably amounts to nearly two millions, of whom a large proportion are savage Indians. The constitution, like that of the other South American republics, is moulded on that of the United States. Buenos Ayres, the capital, on the La Plata, has a population of about 180,000 inhabitants. Cordova and Rosario are the towns next in size and importance.

10. The Republic of Paraguay is of about the same extent as England. It lies between the rivers Parana and Paraguay, and is bounded by these rivers on the east, south, and west. The great interior plateau of Brazil extends into it in the north, although that part is very high. Along the banks of the rivers there are alluvial plains and marshy lowlands admirably adapted for the cultivation of rice. The climate is sub-tropical, and healthy in the higher grounds. Its vegetable productions are similar to those of the surrounding countries. Timber trees of many valuable kinds abound, but the most important of the natural products of this country is yerba maté,* or Paraguay tea, made from the dried leaves

The plant is commonly called Yerba maté. The maté is, however, the gourd, or pot, out of which the infusion of Yerba, or herbs, is sucked.

of a species of holly that grows along the central heights. It is used in Paraguay as a substitute for tea and coffee. Copper, iron, and the precious metals, are found, but not extensively worked. Paraguayan towns and villages are small. The population is very uncertain-probably about 200,000, of which 10,000 live in Asuncian, the capital.

11. The Republic of Uruguay, or Banda Oriental ("Eastern Side"), lies to the south of Brazil, and between the Uruguay River (a tributary of the La Plata) and the Atlantic. The country is well adapted for cattle and sheep farming, and its wealth consists in its immense herds of cattle, horses, and sheep. Hides, tallow, wool, and "extract of meat are the chief exports. The commerce of the capital, Monte Video, is nearly equal to

* Population 125,000. The total population of the Republic is about 450,000.

that of Buenos Ayres. Fray Bentos and Paysandú, on the River Uruguay, are the centres of the "extract of meat" and "tinned provision" trade. As many as 500 head of cattle are slaughtered daily at Fray Bentos.

12. Patagonia is claimed by the Argentine Republic, though, in reality, her claim to the whole of the territory has never been conceded by Chili; and, indeed, by tacit consent, the latter power occupies, at least on paper, the western and southern fringe of this huge, wild, lone land of the south. The territory includes all the country south of the Rio Negro, from the Atlantic to the Andes, down to the Straits of Magellan, and includes an area roughly estimated at four times the size of Great Britain. To the north the interior country is but a continuation of the Pampas; but further south the country, swept by the howling pampero wind, becomes bleak and barren, the soil for hundreds of miles being replaced by beds of shingle. There are a few white settlements on the coast, and the remainder of the country is inhabited by a few tribes of wandering Indians. The southern Patagonians are a tall, fine race of people; they hunt the ostrich and guanacho, and barter the feathers and skins for spirits, tobacco, beads, cloth, knives, &c. The Indians of the north possess herds of cattle and flocks of sheep.

13. The name Tierra del Fuego is given to a broken group of islands in the most southern part of America. Cape Horn is the southern extremity of a small isle of the same name. The general aspect of these islands is wild, desolate, and uninviting in the extreme, and the climate seems to be a succession of storms, mist, and drenching rains. The inhabitants are Indians, mostly in the lowest state of degradation.