Although after the separation from Colombia steps were taken to have a survey made of the republic, the first preliminary studies of Codazzi have remained till very recently all that have been done. Since 1907, however, there has been a Commission, under the control of the War Department, which is slowly collecting material for a map of the whole country, but so far only a small area has been completed. CHAPTER XVII COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT Lack of adequate means—Postal service—A small but growing system—Methods of carriage—Unusual uses of mailbags—Telegraphs—Telephones—Railways—Bolivar Railway—Later lines—Tramways—Abundant water-power—“Roads”—_Carreteras_—Bridle-paths—P.W. D.—Waterways—Less than they seem—Importance—The Orinoco—Ports—Shipping—Steamship lines. Those who know something of Venezuela away from the few ports and towns generally visited by Europeans will doubtless consider the title of this chapter a misnomer. Indeed, it is the lack of adequate means of communication between the different parts of the republic which hinders more than any single cause its progress and development. Revolutions and internal dissensions have been the immediate trouble, but these, if not caused, are at least fostered, by the absence of better roads than bridle-paths and of more permanent lines of communication than single telegraph wires; though in justice it must be said that in times of peace the last-named service is far ahead of the other branches. Venezuela is included in the Postal Union, though owing partly to the custom of “farming” the stamps, the cost of transmission of letters in the interior is twopence-halfpenny and from Venezuela to foreign countries fivepence. The Post Office is considered as a branch of the Ministry of National Development, and employed 358 officials in 1909. The G.P.O. in Carácas is well administered, and from this the quality of the service ranges through the principal offices of each State to the two hundred rural offices scattered up and down the more frequented parts of the republic. More and more money is being spent annually in an endeavour to make the service thoroughly efficient, and in 1908-9 the expenditure under this head was B 848,444, or £33,602. In 1908 the number of interior postal packets carried was about 4,500,000, 2,750,000 letters were received from, or dispatched to, foreign countries, with 18,500 parcels; the number of letters dispatched abroad was rather smaller. The comparison between 4,500,000 and 4,500,000,000, the number of letters handled by our own Post Office some years back, makes the Venezuelan service seem insignificant, but at least it exists and is capable of expansion to an efficient system of communication throughout the country.