The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1902-08-08
BOLIVIA'S ROAD TO THE SEA.
Efforts of the South American COun-
try to Obtain an Opening for
Traffic to the Atlantic Coast

y
ing to circumvent in some way the
great natural disadvantages under
which they labor in having no front
age on the ocean.
The Atlantic has been entirely closed
to them, except by one route, which
has been little utilized because it is so
eXpensive; sometimes pack trains OF
mules are loaded with silver or cop
per at Oruro in the heart of the min
ing regions, and some hundreds of
miles south of the Argentine town of
Jujuy, where the packages are placed
on the cars that take them to Buenos
Ayres. Most of the metals, the lead
ing export of the country, are, how
ever, carried by llamas or mules to
the railroads leading to Mollendo, in
Peru. or to Ant ofagasta, in Chilli, says
the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Freight charges on these railroads
are very high, and if the export prod
yer and copper, they could not bear
the high tax of such expensive trans
portation. The people want a good
connection with the Atlantic, and they
have spent a great deal of money i'll
the effort to find a practicable high
way leading to the eastern seaboard.
Most of the money has been spent
along the Pilcomayo river, and it was
long before the people relinquished
the idea that the river could be SO
improved that it would be a prac-
ticable water route for hundreds of
miles between southern Bolivia and
the middle Paraguay river.
Their last attempt was to send a
steamboat from the mouth of the Pill
comayo up that stream-a fat-bot-
toned boat drawing so little water
that it was believed the vessel might
be brought through to Bolivia. The
captain assembled the river till he was
stuck in the mud.
He waited in vain for an expected
rise in the waters, and finally built a
dam behind his vessel, and by thus i'm
pounding the waters raised the level
high enough to enable him to steam a
few miles farther. Then he built an
other dam, and proceeded a few more
miles toward Bolivia.
So he went on till he had, built seven
dams, when this resource was no long
er effective. By that time he could get
his vessel neither up nor down stream,
and was compelled to abandon the
boat and make the best of his way
home by land.
Another enterprise, however, prom
ises to be a success, and the Bolivians
are quite happy over 6he prospect
that they will have comfortable out
let to the Atlantic. Awhile ago they
sent an expedition commanded by an
Englishman named Bolland to their
eastern frontier to see if the upper
Paraguay could be made available for
navigation.
Steamboats, have long piled on the
Parana and Paraguay as far north as
Corumba, the river port of the Brazil
ian state of Matte Crosse. The ques-
ton was whether smaller boats might
run above that point to some place on
the Bolivian frontier, which was high
enough above the great swamplands
of that region for the building of a
port on the Bolivian side of the bor-
der.
The Brazilians helped the explora-
ton in every way, for they believe it
would be much to the advantage of
the commerce of Matto Crosse if the
Bolivians were to make a good route
across their country to western Bra
zil
The expedition found that it would
be perfectly feasible to establish
steam navigation between Corumba
and Lake Gaiba, which lies exactly on
the frontier, 100 miles north of Corum-
ba. There is six feet of water in the
river at the lowest stage, and in some
places eight feet.
The lake is connected with the river
by a narrow channel that would have
to be widened and deepened. On one
side of this channel is land which is
perfectly suitable TO permit the de-
velopment of city.
TIE Bolivian government took pos
session of this land on November 21
last for the purpose of beginning the
erection of port on its territory on
the shore of this lake, which is direct