Arizona republican., 1903-06-28
ECJADOR LETTER.

The following letter wa5 received by T. M. Sloan of this city rom r. T. As | wall. who is we'll known all over
 Arizona and who is now superintend-
 ent of the Playa Ga Orc Mining Co.,, at
 Playa Rica. Esmeraldas. Ecuador. The | letter was written May 2lst, and MT. Aspinwan says:
 This letter will be about the railroad and Ecuador in general. If newsy
 enough for publication, and they want | it, put same in the Republican as all
 the Americans here read it.
 | Some people are not very familiar with this South American republic of | Ecuador. so I V i'll try and give q de- scription to the best of my knowledge. | It comprises an area of 120,000 English | square miles. population about 1.270.000.
 mostly descendants Of Spain. The chain | of the Andes here shows itself. Chim- ! Dorazo 21525. CotopaXi 19615 feet. An tisala 19. 335 feet. Cayambe 19.1S6 feet. l Its chief products are, cocoa, vege- | table ivory coffee. cotton. sugar to- | bacco. India rubber and several more | to numerous to mention. Ecuador is divided into r provinces and in 1891 ! had 56 miles of railroad running from | Duran to Chimbo Guayaquil is the chief port and has a population of 5O,- | GOO or more Quito. the capital and eie- vated 10000 feet. has a population of l so. 000 and takes at present five days l journey from Guayaquil to Quito. one l day by train the balance by stages. l Cuenca is also a large and important | town, 1t has 25.000 Riobamba. l2.OOO; AmbatO. La Tacunga. Lola. 10000. each. | The Galapagos Islands. 2.4OO square miles. belong to Ecuador. only about zoo miles are susceptible to 'cul- tivation: these islands are also used for
 keeping all long term prisoners. who | seldom come back.
 | In June. 1897. Mir Archer Harman. prominent American. succeeded in ob- taining a contract from the Ecuador | ian government to build from Chimbo
 to Quito. distance oi 200 miles. more
 or less" a broad gauge railroad. to be completed in ten years. The engineers found the old route partly surveyed by | a previous contractor impra acticable, so they started two miles below Chimbo | at station known as Bucay Junction. | The general manager and chief en- | gineer of the Guayaquil & Quito Rail
 way company is Major John A. Har- | man. a very capable and honest gentle man. with an immense amount of ex- Ccutive ability. having resigned from | the IT. :. army to accept this responsi- | bIe position His tact and management 1 in handling several hundred men Is | wonderful. and the bond holders, are | lucky people in securing so able a rep | resentative to come to country like | Ecuador If all his assistants were as | energetic as he. then the road would ! not be long reaching Quito.
 l The road from Duran to Bucay Junction. the first A miles. was a mar row gauge. and has been built several years. and is virtually a straight line. grade never exceeding one and one-half per cent having one tangent of l3 miles lOng The elevation at Duran | is 13 feet. and at Bucay Junction 915 ] feet To reach Duran from Guayaquil
 the company has steam boat to bring | you across the river. q distance of three ! miles. and connects daily with all | trains taking both passengers and freight. From Bucay Junction to Qua mote. a distance of 5S miles. and now | the terminus for the present. is the most difficult part of the entire road to | build the grade being between these stations from 2la to 5lA per cent. with | 59 degree curves, besides you are climbing a mountainous country all the | time to an elevation of 10,64S feet-thiS l is what is called "Palmira Pass'-then
 you drop GAS feet in 10 miles. reaching
 Guamote. which elevation is 10000 fec!.
 Tn these 5S miles you raise 9,673 feet,
 besides crossing 46 large iron bridges, two viaducts. one 340 feet long, the ether 375 feet long and 122 feet high, and three small tunnels 256. 163 and 6S feet long. The above does not include
 the numerous ITestie bridges, all made cut cf California timbers. The en- Cineering on these 5S miles of road IS a great credit - all American engin- | eers, who so ally assisted their chiei, Major J. A. HaTmGn. who undertook
 to build so difficult q road. that had
 twice been, by previous contractors abandoned and claimed to be utterly impossible to build The grandeur and
 scenery is equal to the great Oroya
 railroad in Peru. and the engineering quite as difficult. There is one part
 of the work called "Pistichi Nose or Zig-Zag. It is very difficult to explain this fine piece of railroading. but it is | sufficient to say that in two miles you
 raise from $500 to ,270 feet. or 470 feet, and you still keep on climbing on 512 per cent grades for six miles when you go round complete loop. arriving in
 Alausi. a distance of 341a miles from | Bucay Junction with an elevation of
 7.G75 feet taking one hour and ten min utes from the time you leave the Zig Tag to the above station. distance of
 $ miles. This is railroading in Ecuador: 1 but being in a ma2ana country you | must go slow for if you kill any body
 there will be an awful howl raised.
 The cost of this new line from Bu- | cay Junction to Quito when finished
 will be $16, 7S2. 900 and it is doubtful if this will be sufficient, as the Zig-Zag
 cost over s4O.O0O per mile. then the cost
 of repairing the old line between Duran
 and ChimbO, 56 miles, which was a
 narrow gauge with new 55- pound rails fine California red wood ties and thor
 oughly ballasted besides all bridges | being put in good repair. and an entire
 new telegraph line built from Duran to | Guamote. 112 miles long. So the Amer
 jeans do not leave much to the Man
 ana All monies passing through the ] f,,