=Silver.= The silver mines are better known and are now worked on a larger scale than the gold, although 10,000 lodes are practically abandoned or operated slightly. The suspension was not because of a scarcity of silver but for lack of capital, means of transport, and suitable machinery; also its lower price. A few of the largest mines have continued to be regularly worked. With the recently higher price of silver, greater activity has prevailed than a few years earlier. The richest of the ores contain from 10 to 50 per cent of silver and even 80; more has from 1 to 10 per cent. The Department of Potosí is world renowned for its silver. In the first 40 years of colonial production more than $70,000,000 was taken from the Cerro Potosí, a sugar loaf 16,000 feet above the sea, in which 5000 mines have been opened. Up to the present time a billion dollars, one writer says four billion, have been realized from the silver of Bolivia. In neighboring Provinces of the same Department, Potosí, are many other mines, most of which now produce tin as well. The ores of Potosí which originally contained 60 per cent or more of silver are now poorer with more iron pyrites. The present queen of South American silver mines, the Huanchaca-Pulacayo, east of Uyuni, consists of a dozen groups over 8500 acres, a bed of fabulous richness. In the 28 years before 1901 it produced 4250 tons of silver. The majority of the stock is held in France. Some years ago the Pulacayo mines were flooded with hot water, but they have now been drained and are again operated. On the property is a town of 10,000 people, hundreds of whom are employed in the works, including women who first try out the ore. In 1918 $2,622,000 worth of silver was produced. Oruro is next to Potosí in production of silver, and in tin it stands first. The richest silver ores, as at Huanchaca, are so exported, the poorer are treated on the spot. Other rich mines are well known. =Tin= mining is a more recent industry, dating from 1895. Already it has become the leading export of the country, which now provides more than one-third of the world’s supply. It was well known to the Spanish colonists as much of it was mingled with the silver, but they rejected it as rubbish, using it to fill in depressions. Large profits have been recovered from these fillings and from the dumps. While tin is produced in many other parts of the world, the Bolivian lodes are of unusual extent and richness. Their production is now exceeded only by that of the Straits Settlements. Since the development of the tin plate industry and its use in other ways the demand for tin and the price have enormously increased; from $350 a ton in 1898 to $900 before the war. In 1912 tin was produced, barilla, 60 per cent pure, 37,700 tons, worth $18,000,000; in 1918 the value of tin exported was $45,364,000.