The highlands of Bolivia have been compared with Thibet, the roof of the world, but whilst the Asian tableland consists merely of mountain pastures, that of South America supports towns and populous cities, and affords food for numerous herds of cattle, llamas, vicunas, and sheep, and is covered with harvests of cereals. The mineral wealth of Bolivia lies principally in the western districts, which are consequently the most populous and settled, containing the chief centres of trade at La Paz, Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosi, and Oruro. The eastern provinces of Beni and Santa Cruz cannot as yet point to more than their possibilities, which are vividly suggested in the description of a traveller from the United States, who declared that “the few scattered inhabitants gaze upon a wealth sufficient to pay the national debts of the world.” The population of the country is something just under three millions. The trade is principally in the hands of Germany and England, but the former country is making far greater headway in the Bolivian markets than are our own merchants and manufacturers. The reason doubtless is that Germany and also France in a lesser degree are taking the trouble to find out what the foreign public really requires. CHAPTER XIV “_The Land of Nitrates_” Valparaiso is the principal seaport of the most remarkably shaped country in the world. A narrow strip of land, lying between the Andes and the Pacific, having a length of two thousand eight hundred miles, and a width varying from forty to one hundred and sixty miles, it has not inaptly been compared to a serpent couched on the south-western verge of the continent. When you have voyaged down the coast from Panama, and have experienced the changes from the tropical verdure of the Ecuadorian coast to the arid monotony of the Peruvian seaboard and the dusty, dry melancholy of such Chilian seaports as Iquique, Antofagasta, Tattal, and Coquimbo, the soft grey atmosphere of Valparaiso comes as a welcome relief. One might almost imagine that an English climate had found its way down south, as well as English trade, manners, and customs. Valparaiso--the “Vale of Paradise”--hardly justifies its presumptuous title, for although trees and verdure are plentiful enough, the bay cannot for a moment be compared for beauty with the magnificence of Rio de Janeiro on the other side of the continent. The impressions received are entirely different from any others to be obtained in other parts of South America.