Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-04

oped.
 1t has an area of nearly half a mil lion square miles, which means that it is almost twice the size of Texas; yet it has less than one-twentieth Of of the railroad mileage of that state. To put it differently, there is mile | of railway in the United States as a ! whole for every 13 1-2 square miles of l area, while in Colombia there is only a mile of railway for every 500 square miles of area. Most of the Colombian | railways are of narrower guage. by a | foot or more, than those of the United States. They do not form a system but for the most part are in lengths of 25 to 100 miles. scattered about the country.
 ''Bogota, the capital of Colombia. is
 situated between ranges of the Andes on plateau at an elevation of more
 than a mile and half. 1t is approx 1 imately 450 miles from the Caribbean sea along the most accessible route, | and 200 miles from the Pacific across | the Andes. It has no rail connection with either sea. To reach it one must ! travel for more than 500 miles up the winding course of the Magialeha riv- CT by boat, skirting rapids by means | of short length of railroad, and f.
 nally cover the last 50 miles from the head of navigation by rail. The trip
 sometimes requires several weeks. Transportation of supplies throughout
 much of the interior is by means of
 mule back along rough, narrow noun tain paths. The few carriage roads
 are in the Magdalena delta near the
 coast and in the vicinity of Bogota on
 the plateau.
 More than half of the area of Co.,
 lombia lies east of the three ranges of the Andes and consists of plains
 country sloping toward the center Of the continent and drained by the head
 waters of the great Amazon and Orinoco river systems. Covered with succulent
 grasses, these plains form an unsur-
 passed stock-raising country. It is
 largely unutilized and is to be compar- , ed with the plains of Rhodesia, South Africa, as one of the richest unoccu- , pied regions suitable for cattle raising , remaining in the world. It is esti- 7 mated that more than ten million head of cattle could be pastured on these
 llanos' of eastern Colombia
 3 "Colombia's climatic conditions vary 7 from the ub-tropical near the shores l of the Caribbean, to Alpine in the
 higher Andes. Forests cover millions ] of acres the deltas and river valleys t yield cotton, tobacco, cacao, bananas rubber and other tropical and sub ' l tropical products, while on the hill l sides coffee thrives. On the plateaus r grain and other temperate zone pro- f ducts may be grown. The need fol k | railroads in Colombia is indicated hy
 the fact that, though considerable f quantities of grain are produced or a the interior plateaus, it has alwayi d been cheaper to buy grain from thu n United States in the Colombian coas Q cities after it has been shipped thous n ands of miles, than to transport tn , domestic grain the few hundred mile Q from it's place of production.
 Gold has always been one of tn a important products of Colombia. Sine d the coming of the Spaniards at tn 1T beginning of the sixteenth century ap r. proximately s7OO 00O, 900 worth or golC l. it is estimated, has been mined fror l. the country. Between S5,00O000 an " S6, GOO, 900 worth is produced annual of at present. Iron ore and numerou al other minerals are present in payin II | quantities. Perhaps most importar
 of all. there are indications that lare D. quantities of petroleum may be found ne Colombia was named for Christc y- pher Columbus who in 1902 started "A the country. where the isthmus Of Par ne anna meets South America, the fir CT settlement on the mainland in n m New World. This settlement ws ov short-lived. Carthagena, one of II
  :. It was heavily fortified by the Spar r. iards .and served as the collectio
 point and place of safe keeping I,
 the treasure from both coasts of Spui - American preliminary to it's periodic
 shipment to Spain under convoy.
 After independence was won fro . Spain in 1919 Colombia was combin,
 with Venezuela and Ecuador as 'u ng Republic of Colombia Later there VI us a separation and Colombia became i'm turns the Republic of New Granad lat the Confederation. of Grahadina,' Il DIV United States of Colombia, and final he in 1SS6 again the Republic of Colon me bia Bolivar, though born in We al- ezuela led the Colombians to fiber sm and became the first president of [ me republic. He was banished from We he ezuela and retired to country hou ire in Colombia near Santa Marta. + .n- home, the Mount Vernon of Sou
 America, Is today a shrine in which a hy,