authority is vested in a National Congress, consisting of a Senate and a House of Deputies. When these Provinces first declared their independence of Spain, in the early part of the present century, they were sixteen in number. But two among them subsequently separated from the federal body and assumed the position of independent States. These are Paraguay and Uruguay. DIVISIONS: The Argentine Republic is divided into 14 Provinces, a Federal District, and 10 Territories. The Provinces may be arranged in four groups, (1) Littoral, (2) Central, (3) Andean, and (4) Northern. The Littoral Provinces, 4 in number, are Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Entre Rios, and Corrientes. The ! rovince of Buenos Ayres is the largest and most important of all the Argentine provinces, and includes an area of 118,000 square miles. extending from the estuary of the La Plata along the coast, as far as the Rio Negro on the border of Patagonia. This Province, with the city of the same name, which forms the capital of the Republic, contains considerably more than a third of the entire population of the country. The city of BUENOS AYRES (821) stands on the south side of the magnificent estuary of the La Plata, and is the most important commercial centre, not only of the Argentine Republic, but also of all South America. The capital of the Province of Buenos Ayres is La Plata (61), also on the same river, 40 miles south-east of the Federal capital. Paraná (24), the capital of Entre Rios, is a small town on the River Parana, about 250 miles above the estuary of the La Plata, and was for a time the seat of the Federal Government. Santa Fé (25) lies between the Parana and its tributary the Salado. Rosario (113), in the Province of Santa Fé, is the second largest town in the Republic, and large docks are now being constructed. Corrientes stands on the left bank of the Parana, a few miles below its confluence with the Paraguay. The Central Provinces of the Republic are also 4 in number. They are Cordova, San Luis, Santiago del Estero, and Tucuman, These four provinces are named after their chief towns, all of which are united by rail with Buenos Ayres. The Andean Provinces of Rioja, Catamarca, San Juan, and Mendoza, are, with the exception of the Patagonian and the Chaco Territories, the most thinly-peopled portion of the Republic. These four provinces are also named after their chief towns, all of which are connected by rail with the central provinces and the seaboard. The most southerly of the four towns, Mendoza, is almost opposite Valparaiso, on the other side of the Andes, with which it will shortly be connected by the new Trans-Andean Railway. The Northern Provinces are two in number, namely, Salta and Jujuy. These provinces, which are named after their chief towns, are traversed by the eastern Cordillera of the Andes, and include a part of the Gran Chaco on Jujuy, and the latter town forms the northern terminus of the railway system The railway from Buenos Ayres has been extended beyond Salta to the cast. of the country. 1. Entre Rios, means "between the rivers," namely, the Parana and the Uruguay. The Argentine Territories, 10 in number, are Misiones, Formosa, Los Andes, and Chaco in the north; La Pampa in the centre; and Rio Negro, Neuquen, Chubut, Santa Cruz, and Tierra del Fuego in the south. The territory of Misiones is in the north-east, between the Parana and the Uruguay, which here approach each other and are connected by a short rail. way. Formosa and Chaco are both within the vast El Gran Chaco. La Pampa, as the name shows, is within the Pampas region, between the Province of Buenos Ayres and the Andean Territory of Neuquen. Los Andes lies in the extreme north-west of the Republic. The other Territories are within the extensive and comparatively barren region known as Patagonia, which, until recent years, was inhabited only by a few thousand uncivilized Indians. The Rio Negro Territory is bounded on the north by the Colorado River, and is Traversed by the Rio Negro, at the mouth of which is Viedma, the only town. The territory of Chubut or Chupat is named from the river which flows through it; near the mouth of the Chubut is Rawson, the centre of an unsuccessful Welsh colony, connected by a railway with Port Madryn, on a fine inlet, the Baia Nueva. The Territory of Santa Cruz includes the southern part of Patagonia, and its chief river and town are also named Santa Cruz. THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. The British Crown Colony of the FALKLAND ISLANDS is situated in the South Atlantic, about 300 miles east of Magellan Strait. They consist of two large islands-East Falkland and West Falkland and about a hundred smaller islands. The total area of the colony is about 4,850 square miles and the population is about 2,000. The staple industry on these treeless but well grassed islands is pastorallarge numbers of sheep, cattle, and horses are reared, and wool, tallow, hides and skins, and sheep form the chief exports' from PORT STANLEY, a free port at the head of Port William on the coast of East Falkland, and which is not only the capital, but also the only important settlement in the colony. The Falkland Islands were discovered by Davis in 1592, and were taken by the French in 1763, then fruitlessly held by Spain until 1771, and occupied by the Republic of Buenos Ayres in 1820. The Argentine settlement was destroyed by the Americans in 1831, and, two years later, the islands were taken possession of by the British Government, as a station for the protection of the whale fishery. CHILE. The REPUBLIC OF CHILE includes the comparatively narrow strip of country on the western coast of South America, between the Audes and the Pacific. It is bounded on the north by Peru, on the north-east, by Bolivia; on the cast, by the Argentine Republic; and on the west and south, by the Pacific. Though of such narrow limits in the direction of east and west, the area of the Provinces and Territories included in the Republic is not less than 307,600 1. In 1905, the exports of this prosperous c lony average unequal d in any part of the British reached the high figure of £167,400-an average Empire. The imports amounted to £58,000, of nearly £84 per head of the population, an square miles, or more than 5 times that of England and Wales. The extreme length is over 2,800 miles, but the breadth, even north of Yaldivia, is on an average not more than 100 miles. Chile has a population of over 3 millions. It includes a larger proportion of the white race (Spanish) than is the case in other countries of South America. The Roman Catholic Religion is uniformly followed by the Chil'an people. Education is free and at the cost of the State. NATURAL FEATURES: The stupendous cordillera, which forms its eastern boundary, is the great natural feature of Chile. The Chilian Andes include some of the highest summits of the mountainsystem-the loftiest being the peak of Aconcagua, 22,800 feet above the level of the sea. Numerous other high summits, many of them volcanoes, occur both to the north and south of this peak. The plain between the Andes and the Pacific is much broader within Chile than in any other part of the western coast. This plain is not uniformly level, but, or the most part, diversified by hills of moderate altitu 'e, with watered valleys between. Towards the extreme north, however, it passes irto a perfectly arid region, called the Desert of Atacama, which is now with Chile. This is a perfectly sterile wilderness, devoid of rain and entirely destitute of verdure. Numerous short rivers flow from the Andes into the Pacific. Few of them are navigable; the longest is the Biobio. The climate of Chile is temperate and healthy, becoming gradually colder towards the south. TRADE and INDUSTRIES: Agriculture and mining are the chief indu-tries in Chile, and animals and animal products are a great source of wealth. The country is barren and sandy in the north, but extremly fertile and productive in the south, where most of the people are engaged in agriculture. producing annually about 21 million bushels of wheat, and 24 million galers of wine. Live animals, with wool, hides, skins, and other animal products, are important items in the exports, but the chief sources of wealth are the nitrate deposits of the north, the copper and silver of the centre, and the iron and coal of the south. Mining products form five-sixths of the exports, while the agricul tural products only amount to about one-ninth of the whole. Nitrates form the bulk of the mining products, while wheat and wine are the principal products of the soil. Of the numerous ports, the most important are VALPARAISO, which imports nearly 4 times as much as all the other ports taken together, but exports less than IQUIQUE. TALCAHUANO, COQUIMBO, ANTOFAGASTA, TALTAL CORONEL, and VALD VIA also do a large trade. The total imports and exports amount to about 25 millions sterling. About two-fifths of the foreg trade is carried on with Great Britain-the imports amounting to 434 millons, and the exports to over 6 millions sterling annually-the rest chiefly with Germany, France, the United States, and Peru. Several lines of steamers connect the chief ports of Chile with Panama, and with Europe (through the Strait of Magellan-the most important being the Pacific Steam Navigation Company of Liverpool. GOVERNMENT: Chili is a Republic, under an elective Presi dent. The legislative power is vested in a National Congress, con sisting of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. Chili proclaimed its independence of Spain in 1810. The war with Peru and Bolivia closed in 1881 with the total defeat and dispersion of the Peruvian army at Chorillos and Miraflores, and the surrender of Lima and Callao to the Chilians. A treaty of peace was signed in 1883. During the last civil war in Chili, between the President, who evidently aimed at a dictatorship, and the Congressionalists or Parliamentary party, several battles were fought, and much blood was shed, and property destroyed. The conflict was ended by the capture of Valparaiso after a hotly contested battle at Vina del Mar, and the subsequent occupation of Santiago by the Congressional troops. The illstarred President Balmaceda shot himself in the Argentine Legation at Santiago. DIVISIONS: The Republic is divided into 23 Provinces and 1 Territory. The most important provinces are those of Santiago, Valparaiso, Coquimbo, and Concepcion. The territory of Antofagasta was taken from Bolivia during the last war, and those of Tacna and Tarapacá was ceded by Peru in terms of the peace of October 20, 1883." Tacna was to continue in the possession of Chili for 10 years, at the end of which time a popular vote of the Province was to decide to which country it should belong. This was, however, deferred owing to internal troubles in Peru; but in April, 1898, a convention was signed for the purpose of having the plébiscite taken. Easter Island, in the Pacific, also belongs to Chili. By a treaty with the Argentine Republic, the whole of the Patagonian coast and the islands east of the Andes and north of the Strait of Magellan, with the western half of Tierra del Fuego, is included in Chili, TOWNS: The chief towns in Chili are Santiago, the capital, and Valparaiso, the chief port. SANTIAGO (302), the capital of Chili, is an inland city, about midway between the Andes and the ocean. The chief seaport is Valparaiso (139), which is the most important centre of commerce on the west coast of South America. The city of Concepcion (50), on the River Biobio, to the south of Valparaiso, is of considerable commercial importance, and Talca (41) and Chillan (35) are mining towns at the foot of the Andes, and connected by rail both with the capital and the ports of Constitucion and Concepcion. On the coast to the north of Valparaiso are numerous ports, among which Coquimbo and Iquique (43) are the most important. In the former Bolivian territory are the ports of Antofagasta (20) and Cobija. Tarapacá, at the foot of the Andes, is the chief town of the ceded Peruvian province. The ports of Tacna and Arica and the adjoining districts are also provisionally held by Chili. BOLIVIA. THE REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA, which derives its name from the great liberator of Spanish South America, Simon Bolivar, is an inland State, bounded on the north and east by Brazil, on the south by the Argentine Republic and Paraguay, and on the west by Peru and Chili. The area of Bolivia is considerably greater than that of Chili, being estimated at 515,000 square miles,1 or about ten times that of England and Wales. The present population of Bolivia is estimated at 2% millions, of whom the aboriginal Indians number over a million, the Mestizos or mixed races about half-a-million, and the whites also about half-a-million. The whites, as is the case along the whole western side of the South American continent, are Spaniards or of Spanish descent. NATURAL FEATURES: Some of the highest portions of the Andes are within Bolivia. The border-line between Peru and Bolivia crosses the high Tableland of Titicaca, the larger part of which is in the latter State. On either side of this tableland are ranged some of the highest summits of the mountain-system. One of the number-the peak of Sorata-attains the height of 21,470 feet, while Ilimani, a little to the south, reaches an elevation of 21,040 feet. To the east of the Bolivian Andes, vast plains stretch towards the interior of the continent. These are watered by numerous rivers, some of which belong to the basin of the Amazon, others to that of the Paraguay. Lake Titicaca is partly within Bolivia and partly in Peru. The basin of this lake is entirely inland; the Desaguadero River, which issues from it, is lost in the salt lake of Uros, to the south-east. Lake Titicaca is 12,540 feet above sea-level. PRODUCTIONS: Bolivia abounds in natural resources, but neither the mineral nor the vegetable wealth is developed to any extent. Till within the last few years, the vast agricultural and mineral resources of the country were entirely dormant for want of means of communication, but more recently some efforts have been made to construct roads and railways, The silver mines of Potosi alone are estimated to have produced silver amounting in value to 600 millions of pounds sterling, from their discovery in 1545 down to 1864. The silver mine of Huanchaca, on the plateau of Potosi, is one of the most important silver mines in the world. Gold is also obtained from the eastern Cordillera of the Andes, and copper, lead, tin, salt, and sulphur are also found. The agricultural products of the republic include maize, rice, barley, oats, cotton, cocoa, indigo, india-rubber, coca, potatoes, and the choicest fruits, with cinchona bark, medicinal plants, &c. Coca is one of the most important products of the country, while there are over five million cinchona trees, which yield 200,000 lbs. of bark annually. COMMERCE : Nearly one-half of the imports-average value 21⁄2 millions a year-are believed to come from the United Kingdom, mainly through the Peruvian port of Arica. Two-thirds of the exports-valued at 3 millions sterling a year-consist of silver. As Bolivia has no sea coast, her products pass through Peruvian and Chilian ports and Buenos Ayres. A railway con nects the Chilian port of Antofagasta with Ascotan, a frontier town of Bolivia, and thence to Uyuni, Huanchaca, and Oruro. Other lines are projected, or under construction, to connect the chief towns with each other, and with the ports on the Pacific Coast to the west and on the River Paraguay to the east. 1. Bolman Official Statistics, 1880-88, give the area as 772,548 ure miles, and the population as 1,192,162, excla ing aboriginal Indians. The Pacific Coast provi, ce, ceded to Chili after the war of 1879-80, has an area of over 70,000 square 2. The Statesman's Year Book, 1894. |