obligates itself to begin road construction in 1907 and to complete the work within ten years' time.

The building of this road, like that of the Oroya-Ucayali Line, is of immense importance, not only commercially, but politically and strategically, to Peru, whose immense and valuable trans-Andean possessions can be developed and held free from encroachments only by means of efficient transit facilities between the more populous coast section (cis-Andean Peru) and the montana, or practically virgin country beyond the Cordillera (trans-Andean Peru). This montana country, which is drained by numberless rivers-the headwaters of the Amazon-is full of possibilities, and would be more extensively colonized were it not that its remoteness has, until now, forbidden its approach by any but the more venturesome. Still there is a flourishing town at Iquitos, which does an export and import business (via the Amazon and Brazilian ports) utterly out of proportion to its size or remote location. The banks of the rivers are also dotted here and there with smaller trading posts, where many persons have accumulated wealth bartering manufactured goods for rubber and other native products of the semicivilized Indian tribes. The rubber is of the highest-priced sort known to commerce, and is generally known in the world's markets from its (Brazilian) exporting point as "Para rubber."

The Lima to Pisco road, which is to extend some 225 kilometers (140 miles), is intended to connect Lima with the port of Pisco, the center of the grape and brandy industry of Peru, and will traverse a number of agricultural and stock-raising valleys. It is thought that when the road is completed the present high cost of living in Lima will be decreased by from 33 to 40 per cent, most of Lima's produce, charcoal, beef, etc., coming from this region. It may also tend to lower the abnormally high freight and passenger rates charged by the two merged steamship companies which traffic on the coast-a considerable hindrance to local commerce at present. The Government has offered a guaranty of 7 per cent annual interest on the capital invested in this road up to $2,435,000, and it is said that "The Peruvian Corporation," a British syndicate already controlling certain railroads in Peru, will undertake its construction.

The railroad from Chimbote, one of the best natural harbors on the west coast of South America, to Recuay is to be some 220 kilometers (137 miles) in length, and will reach into a wealthy mineral region, as well as traverse coal fields of considerable magnitude. The harbor of Chimbote is important. It is said that an English syndicate has been formed to construct this road and have already approached the Peruvian Government with a very favorable proposition.

Twenty-five kilometers (15.5 miles) of railroad are now under construction between the port of Bayovar, in northern Peru, and the sul

phur beds at Sechura. This is the work of private enterprise interested in the sulphur deposits.

The present Government of Peru has among its chief aims that of covering the country with a network of railways and of doing all that is possible to encourage foreign immigration and colonization. It is prepared to give to concessioners valuable considerations in the way of land grants, guaranteeing a certain sure percentage on the amounts invested, etc. The opening of the Panama Canal will place Peru in comparatively close touch with the United States, and the facilities offered to foreign concessioners will naturally be fewer then than they are to-day.

AUTOMOBILE FREIGHT LINE.

An automobile line for the purpose of freight-carrying between Lima and Callao has been inaugurated. It is incorporated as the "Sociedad de Automobiles para Carga Limitada," and has a capital of $214,280, distributed in shares of $24.35 each.

There are five automobiles in use at present, each having a freightcarrying capacity of 5 metric tons. They carry cargo direct from the Callao docks to the consignee's warehouse or commercial establishment in the city of Lima, a convenience not afforded by the railroad lines.

Although Callao has for centuries been so identified with Lima as to be virtually but a commercial suburb of the larger city, and although this condition has of late years been accentuated by the successive establishment of two steam railroads and a trolley line between the two places, facilities for transporting cargo have hardly been adequate to the needs of Lima merchants. When it is taken into consideration that the business district of Callao consists almost exclusively of shipping agencies, branch banks, seaboard consulates, and that, except in ship chandlery, there is hardly a single important commercial establishment of any kind here that is not a branch of some Lima firm, it will be seen that there was urgent need for some cheap and rapid means, such as the new automobile line affords, of transporting import cargoes to their real destination, which is usually the city of Lima.

STATEMENT OF IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

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 Latin-American countries. The report is for the month of January, 1905, with a comparative statement for the corresponding month of the previous year; also for the seven months ending January, 1905, as compared with the same period of the preceding fiscal 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 January, for example, are not published until some time in March.