Peru’s front is happily 1200-1300 miles long, but then a wall! and in places not one only; back of that another and another; between each two a deep, deep hollow; climbs, up and down, up and down, to gain the fertile _montaña_; or, in the central section, where it might seem easy going after having surmounted the high wall to the lofty plateau, there are hills if not dales, with few level spots. Do not imagine that a table-land is like a table! The country is rolling where not mountainous; nor is that all. The various rivers that wind about flowing now south now north, southeast and northwest, with branches from any direction, these are not simple little rivers, a few or many feet deep, which require merely an ordinary bridge; but whether deep or shallow they are liable to be and generally are at the bottom of a cañon 300 or 3000 feet deep, the top of which may be a mile or two across. For a railway to descend to such depths and climb up the other side, not once but the many times needful for a road traversing the length of Peru is for a sparsely inhabited country, governmentally poor, quite impossible. Hence the slowness of Peru’s development despite its wonderful riches. When some years ago the Pan American Railway from New York to Buenos Aires was projected, investigation was made of practicable routes by the United States Government. The way in Ecuador is plain and in Colombia there is little choice; but in Peru the question of highland, low coast, or far interior was to be solved. The coast seemed less desirable as along here one could go by water. Moreover, the Maritime Cordillera for a long distance is so near the sea with so many spurs coming down to the coast, or as in Southern Peru a bluff several hundred or thousand feet high with its feet in the sea is so cut every little way by one of those 58 streams in a very deep cañon, that it was not more inviting than the plateau region above, where the road would be much more serviceable. Plateau was the decision; but for the Great War, money might soon be forthcoming; as it is, long delay is probable before the road is completed. As for inland transportation therefore, it may be said that it is carried on mainly by sea, which is no joke but stern reality; accordingly coast service is well provided. COAST SERVICE