Chile, like all the west coast republics, is becoming very much interested in the Panama Canal, and the effect that its completion will have upon the country. Unlike the North American, the South American does not become impatient over the probable date of the completion of the canal, for it does not make much difference to him whether it is ten years or twenty-five years hence. The only question in his mind is what may be the ultimate effect of the canal. It is, perhaps, of more interest to a North American, because the North American is interested in the possibilities of trade development with that coast. At the present time there are perhaps 11,500,000 of people living in the republics of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, which have a foreign commerce, including both exports and imports, in excess of $300,000,000. In addition to this there is the trade with the Pacific coast of Colombia. Then there is added to this the question of the probability of future development of those countries, which are in themselves larger than any European kingdoms, except Russia. The enthusiastic Chilean, for instance, will tell you how many times larger is his country than Holland, and estimates the immense population that his country could support at the same density per mile as that little European kingdom. This, of course, is absolutely impossible, because such large sections of the country are untillable. Furthermore, there never has been as yet such rapid increases in population in any of the west coast countries as the United States, Canada, Argentina and Australia can show. Hence it is not well to think of this section as being likely to have sudden growths of population, but there will doubtless be a slow and steady increase in each of the countries mentioned.