MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. Routes of travel across the Andes are few in number, the passes are very high, and the roads traversing them are, as a rule, very bad. • Communication be tween the peoples on the two sides of the moun tains is slight. The high land between the ranges is the best settled part of these sparsely settled countries, and the inhabitants of these elevated regions have some intercourse with the western seaboard, hut very little with the low country to the east. But with the development of the mining industry in the mountains and the exploitation of the rubber resources of the upper waters of the Amazon, it may be expected that means of communication across the range will be improved in the near future. In Colom bia the main routes of travel follow the valleys of the Cauca and the Magdalena, while the chief route across the Cordillera Central is via Quin dio Pass, connecting Cartago, on the Cauca, with the valley of the Magdalena, and ultimately with the capital, Bogota. In Ecuador the main routes pass north and south through the succes sion of mountain valleys, connecting with the coast at Guayaquil, by railroad from Chimbo, or northward down the Cauca and Magdalena. The most frequented eastward route crosses the Eastern Cordillera between Saraurcu and Anti sans, and reaches navigable water in the Napo at Puerto Napo. In Peru the plateau within the ranges is connected with the coast by two railways, which are marvels of engineering. The Oroya Railway connects Lima and Callao with Oroya and Concepcion, crossing the Western Cor dillera at an altitude of 15,665 feet, in a distance of 106 miles from Lima. The second railway
connects Mollendo on the coast with Lake Titi caca. It erosses the Western Cordillera at an altitude of 14,666 feet, and terminates at the little town of Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, 12,540 feet high. Several other short lines run from the coast to the foot of the mountains and even some distance into them, following the stream valleys; among them is the line up the Rio Santa to Huaraz.
The somewhat broken character of the ranges in Peru and Bolivia has made the plateau easier of access than it is farther north, and there are many roads and trails from the coast to the summit; but routes of communication to the east, to the country about the upper waters of the Madeira and Plata, are almost entirely lacking. From Antofagasta in northern Chile, on the coast, a. railway has been constructed to Oruro, on the plateau, north of Lake Poopo. This road has a total length of 560 miles, snaking it much the longest of the Andean lines. In central Chile and Argentina a transcontinental railway has long been in course of construction, which is to cross the Andes at Uspallata. or Cumbre Pass, not far from Santiago, at an altitude of 32.340 feet. This is the most frequented pass in Chile, as almost all the transcontinental travel goes over it.