The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-16

AS to coal, so far none of value ba been discovered in this part of the world
 There Is said to be some in the northern part of the Peruvian Andes and m tbs coast oi southern Chile there are great oeos that run far out under the Pacific ocean The latter mines have been worked TOT generations, and they still supply A large part of the fuel of the west coast mere Is no coal in Brazil snffioian+l,, soou 10 make steam or smelt iron and so Tar Argentina, Uruguay and Irarapuav V nave shown no fuel of value. MT. Forbes an eminent English geologist. who ba 6 oone some work in eastern Bolivia. saws 'iiat an enormous carboniferous deposit proDapiy exists at the eastern foot of the Andes and that geologic conditions lead to that belief. No soundings or borinps have yet been made, but one evidence ,s tb.t : pe'roieum springs 30 miles from Santa Cruz.
 AS 10 the gold of eastern Bolivia. the lnoians have for ages been washing if out rom the headwaters of the Beni. and the gravel of that stream shows color all the way down to the Amazon. It is be- AeVeo that great part of the Urea as- uies or the lncas came from the Beni; ana the English and American miners are prospecting in that region today. Gold is being found in Matto Grnsso. Just across the borders from eastern Bo- hvia. They are working placers in the provinces of Santa Javier and also in santa Rosa, where during the dry sea- son they bore from 30 to 45 feet down into the beds of the canals and wash the dirt. Many of the rivers of eastern Bo- livia have never been prospected They have a deep undercurrent, and run over slate and granite so that the rough tools and clumsy methods so far used have not proved efficient, except where there are alluvial deposits thrown up by the streams These deposits are usually about three or four feet wide, and of about the same depth. Some gold is being found in the River Quisere, which is about 50 miles long. The Qulsere flows over bed of quartz upon which is an alluvial deposit containing gold that could be worked by the use of dredges. There are also quartz deposits in the neighbor- hood of these rivers, and the placer miners report the finding of quartz, visi- bly, incrusted with gold There is one quartz vein in Santa Rosa. called the clemente, whose every test shows gold
 The great difficulty, however, is in the getting in of machinery and the reduction of the ores. So far there are practically no means of transportation
 And this brings me to the question of communications. South America is at the beginning of great railroad era. New lines are being built in nearly all of the republics of the southern half of the continent, and many roads have been pro- jected to open up new territory There are several already planned and sur veyed that will materially affect eastern Bolivia. One is the extension of the Antofagasta railroad which runs from the Pacific orean across the desert to the great tin mining town of Uyuni, and thence on to the plateau of the Andes, ending here at La Paz This line has built a branch from Uyuni to the town of Tupiza, and it is now within a short dis tance of the Argentina railroad system Only about 100 miles remain to be built, but when this is completed there will be a transcontinental route across Bolivia from the Pacific ocean to the Atlantic. The road will pass through the southern part of the country, and not very far away from the old fields.
 Another possibility of opening up east ern Bolivia lies in the railroads the Bra zilians are building into Matto Crosse. They have surveyed lines to connect the Atlantic seacoast at the Bay of Sac Fran