=Mining= and forest products alone are of value in export. Gold is the chief production, more than $2,000,000 a year being generally exported. Most of the 225 claims developed are being worked by paroled convicts. Those who escape or are paroled often give serious annoyance to the people in the other Guianas and are frequently a serious danger. Most of the country is still covered with dense forest, where probably much more gold will be found. Phosphate rock is shipped in small quantities. The American Company already referred to has headquarters at St. Laurent, the site of the penal colony, a port 40 miles up the Marowijne or Maroni River. Here they have big dredges, aeroplanes, and a wireless station. Traces of petroleum have been observed southeast of the Marowijne River, but the indications are not of definite importance. =Forest= products are second in importance, rosewood and its extract, other hard woods, and balatá being exported; also vegetable oils, cacao, and a few domestic animals. Railways have been talked of, and it is expected that one will be constructed towards the interior in the not remote future. Aeroplane service is reported as to be installed, both freight and passenger, from Cayenne to the gold regions of the interior. THE WEST COAST CHAPTER XIV ECUADOR: AREA, HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, POPULATION, ETC. South of Colombia, fortunate in its Atlantic and Pacific Coast lines, are three exclusively Pacific countries, unless we count a rearward communication, so to speak, with the Atlantic by the Amazon for the first two, or note that the coast line of the third runs at the south quite to that ocean. Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, in the order named, now occupy the remaining Pacific coast line for the several thousand miles from Colombia to the Horn. In the group of West Coast States, however, Bolivia may be counted, for though nearly forty years ago she lost her small strip of coast line, her communication with the outside world is chiefly by way of the Pacific, and with these Republics she has characteristics in common. AREA, POPULATION, BOUNDARY =Area.= First of the West Coast countries from the north, Ecuador has an uncertain area on account of boundary disputes. That with Colombia is lately settled, but not the one with Peru. With approximately 116,000 square miles now in her possession, she is usually ranked as next to the smallest South American Republic, Uruguay. The country extends from about 2° North Lat. to 6° South. =Population.= As no official census of Ecuador has ever been taken, the population is variously stated. A liberal estimate places the figures at 2,000,000.