The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-01

Copyright. 1914, by Frank G. Car
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that is to be made our next door ne-gn-sor py tse opening Of the Pan anna canal It is one of the chief coun- tries of South America, but parts of it are as unknown as the wids of Tibet, It is right at the front doorstep of eastern North America, so close that if Uncle Sam took a walk, using his l0o0-league boots, he would stub his toe upon it before he got three steps away from our gulf port of New Or leans. l am writing at Lima, the capi- tai. An express steamer can cover the distance between here and the canal in less than three days, and when the fast Atlantic liners from New York enter the Pacific they will be able to come to Callao, the port of Peru quite as quickly as they now cross over to Hamburg or Bremen. The actual dis tance from the Balboa docks to those of Callao is 1346 miles, and the regular vessels which call at the coast ports make the trip In five or six days Even now one go from New York to Lima, crossing the isthmus by rail, in less than two weeks, and when the canal Is completed the whole trip can be easily made by ship in that time.
 have spoken of Peru as unknown. been prospected. If lies here in the heart of western South America, talk ing up about ne-fourth of the whole range of the Andes and extending for 1000 miles along the dry, thirsty coast and an equal distance through the rain fest region on earth, on the opposite side of the mountains
 Peru is more than 1000 miles long, and in places it is more than TOO miles wide. If you laid it down in the Mis- sissippi valley. with the Chilean boun- dary at New Orleans, the Ecuador line would be somewhere near Minneapolis, and it would almost fill the whole val ley from the Mississippi river to Pitts burg.
 The country contains about GSO.Oc0 square miles. It is equal to more than one-fifth of the area of the United States proper. is six times as large as Great Britain and Ireland. and is larger than Germany, France and the Spanish peninsula combined. There is enough of it to make IA states as big as New York, 10 as big as Pennsyl- vania, or IT of the size of Ohio. The country has one province, the name of which many of you have never heard which is larger than Texas This IS Loreto. at the headwaters of the Anna zon. The province of Cuzco is in south ern Peru. and the most of it high up in the Andes It is bigger than Cal ifornia, and there are other provinces that would make sizable Americaa states.
 The whole of Peru is divided up into three zones. It all lies in the tropics but the climatic influences are such that most of it forms fit home Tor white men, The first zone is that of the desert, the second that of the hisl Andean valleys and plateaus, which are upheld by the three parallel ranges of three mighty mountains, and the third is the country that slopes down from the mountains and forms a part of the Amazon valley. The desert zone Tonld be as hot as the Sahara, but fl is tempered by the Antarctic current which flows mp this coast from near the south pole This makes it cool and beautiful all the year round.
 The second zone is the plateaus of the Andes These highlands form region 800 miles wide. They have from 4oo to 14OOO feet elevation, and are looked down upon by some peaks, almost four miles in height They are so high that II IS cool and healthy throughout the year. They have summers that will ripen the hardest grains and in the lower valleys oil Of fruits. It is rather cold there in the winter and the snow often falls. but the summers are not unlike those of the Rockies.
 This region is famous for live stock It provides the meat and wool for the whole of Peru, and it has large tracts of grazing lands where sheep and cattle grow well. An extensive wool and meat industry might be developed, and that with a view to supplying American mar kets.
 Upon the highest plateaus are found the llama, alpaca and vicuna. The lianas are used al beasts of burden, but they produce a great deal of wool, and also are eaten. The alpacas are smaller than the iamas. They are herded, and they IuTnlSH eNceiSbl N'oi' i"S 'ASNi'" wool is even better It is as fine as silk and is worth four times as much as the alpaca Within the past few years some of the wool growers have been trying to cross the vicuna and alpaca, and have developed new breed of animals which they call 'paco-vicuiia."
 The third zone of Peru Is that which lies east of the Andes It begins about 2 mile or a mile and half above the sea on the slopes Of the mountains and runs down to the tropical forests of the Amazonan headwaters. This region is t.ensely wooded. and its vast forests con tain rubber and other valuable trees. It has also some open country, and there are lands which will produce coffee. cacao and sugar as well is every sort of trop- ical fruit
 It is East Andrean Peru that is almost unknown. Many parts oe it have never Ieen prosrected,> and it Is still unin- habited except by wild Indians, with here and there a few rubber hunters. There gre no large towns ard Iquitos on the Amazon is the chief port of the northern section l. is 2OO0 miles or more from the sea
 Peru will eventually be reached from the Pacific It is only about 400 miles from that ocean. and there now railroads