done at Ica, Ançon, and other places, is under the direction of an American hydrologist. The information is given that there is a strong prejudice in Peru against buying any machinery of this class on condition of accepting the service of an expensive expert.

Attention is further called to the fact that although the sugar estates in the Callao district make and sell alcohol, all possess the crudest system of making the tins or cans used for the purpose of exporting it. The cans used are of tin, similar in appearance to the 5-gallon kerosene cans, and are packed for export in wooden boxes, one to each can. At present these boxes are all imported from the United States and France. In the manufacture of the cans the cost of labor at Callao is from 1 to 2 pence per can.

FOREIGN COMMERCE, 1903-4.

The following table shows the commerce through the custom-house at Iquitos during the fiscal year commencing June 1, 1903, and ending May 31, 1904.

The value of the imports and exports through Iquitos from March to July, inclusive, 1904, was as follows:

[From Bulletin No. 10 of the Association of Engineers of Lima.]

At the close of the year 1903 there were in the 62 mining districts of the Republic 6,763 mines and mining claims, not including the concessions for the extraction of borates, phosphates, and alkaline salts which, according to the mining census last taken, consisted of 3,624 claims, each of which covered an area of 40,000 square meters, or a total of 14,496 hectares. The first place among these 6,763 mines and mining claims belongs to the department of Puno as a producer of gold obtained from its 803 gold mines, which yield annually 566 kilograms of gold. The second place must be awarded to the department of Junín for its production of silver and copper, amounting in 1903 to 62,086 kilograms of silver and 8,225,000 kilograms of copper obtained from the 2,383 silver and copper mines contained within its borders.

The production of lead is greater than that shown in the statistics compiled, inasmuch as the lead contained in ores exported which do not assay over 10 per cent of graphite was generally not included in the value of the ores, owing to the relatively small value of the lead in comparison with that of the precious metals which the ores contained. It is, however, a well-known fact that many of the sulphides, as well as a large part of the argentiferous ores exported, contained lead. The production of lead annually in the exported ores containing more than 10 per cent lead is 1,302 tons.

At the present time mercury is only extracted on a small scale from the famous Huancavelica cinnabar mines. No statistics have been compiled giving the quantity of the production of this element in the Republic, but it is known that the output is insignificant. The same is true concerning zinc, antimony, etc., there having been no exports of these elements except in combination with other ores, and there are no smelters in the Republic which produce these products in the pure or metallic state.

The Department of Junín also occupies the first place in the production of coal. There are 442 coal mines in that Department, and

the production is 70 per cent of the total output from the coal mines of the Republic. Petroleum is obtained in the Department of Piura to the extent of 37,079 metric tons annually. The petroleum springs or deposits of the entire Republic number 330, according to the last mining census, 328 of which are in the Department of Piura.

The following table shows the number of mines or claims in the Republic, compiled from official sources:

It can be confidently asserted that more than 10 per cent of the mines enumerated in the foregoing table are now being exploited. The output from these mines, according to the careful and detailed estimate made by Mr. LOREDO, is shown as follows:

The values of the foregoing productions are shown in the following table:

11,636.9 tons of common salt....

25,440 tons of crude petroleum, and 11,639 tons of by-products derived from the same.

To the value shown in the foregoing table may be added the values of the following products:

2,466 tons of borates, containing 40 per cent of boric acid...

Peruvian pounds.

22, 194

149, 290

17, 637

Total....

189, 121

The value of the miscellaneous products not enumerated in the foregoing tables, consisting of coal, sulphur, and other mineral productions, amounted to 1,396,254 Peruvian pounds. The Peruvian pound is the exact equivalent of the pound sterling.

EXPORTS OF RUBBER AND CAOUTCHOUC FROM IQUITOS IN 1903.

Following is the latest statement, from figures compiled by the Bureau of Statistics, United States Department of Commerce and Labor, showing the value of the trade between the United States and LatinAmerican countries. The report is for the month of November, 1904, with a comparative statement for the corresponding month of the previous year; also for the eleven months ending November, 1904, as compared with the same period of the preceding year. It should be explained that the figures from the various custom-houses showing imports and exports for any one month are not received at the Treasury Department until about the 20th of the following month, and some time is necessarily consumed in compilation and printing, so that the returns for November, for example, are not published until some time in January.