A glance now at the mining industry, so largely dependent upon means of transport here. It cannot be said that gold plays a predominant part in the mining of to-day in the Latin American countries. More important is the winning of the baser metals. It is, in fact, somewhat remarkable that a land, fabled earlier for its plenitude of gold, should in modern times, yield so relatively small an output. The value of the whole gold production of the Latin American countries scarcely reaches the annual amount of £8,000,000, which shrinks into insignificance beside the £50,000,000 of a single group of mines in another continent, the South African Rand. Of this, Mexico produces three-quarters, leaving the vast continent of South America with the small sum, as contribution to the world's stock of the yellow metal, of some two million pounds' sterling only. We may inquire as to the reason of this paucity, and the reply, in the first instance undoubtedly is that, although Nature has placed gold in the rocks and soils of Central and South America in almost every quarter, the metal is in a form that does not always lend itself to the winning in large bulk. The mines are rich, but often small and scattered. There have not here been discovered the enormous bodies of ore which, although of low grade, as in South Africa, by their very extent and compactness, render mining economically and physically a more profitable undertaking. Further, it may be said that, in more recent times, mining enterprise and the attention of capital needful for such has not been drawn so strongly to the possibilities of gold-mining in the Latin American countries, and, lastly, political unrest and revolution in these States has in some cases rendered it precarious. This last condition need not be exaggerated. It may be said that the Governments of the Latin American Republics are, in the main, generous in their treatment of foreign mining enterprise in their territories, and that sporadic revolution does not necessarily seriously affect the working of the mines, though at times it may cause temporary inconvenience and possible loss. The foreign shareholders of the few considerable gold mines of South America, and even of Mexico, have in general reaped excellent returns on their investments. Conditions in Mexico, however, of late have been intolerable in some cases, with confiscation and even murder attending them.