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132

tion, anrl

acepbalous.

INTERNATIONAL AMERICAN CONFERENCE.

enterprise, as far as the pra<.:tical part is concerned, may be considerecl

'l'his bad its natural rcRult, dissatisfactiou emmeu among tbe assistants, severa! of

tbe American engineers baving m·esented complaint at this con. ulate for non-fultill–

llltliJt of dctail.:; of coutr::tets malle with tbcm iu tbe United States anu for other rea–

sons, nlaDJ' of these cornplamts Leing, no doubt, well-fouuded.

Tbe work progressed very slowly and uusa.tisfactorilJ', and to-day, more than teu

montbs afrer the initiation of tLe surveys, tbey are not yet completell, altboug-b tbe

nt.ire distance is but :30 1eagues.

It

will be remem!Jered, moreover, that this is

a

clirnate of perpetual suwmer, wbere inclerueucy of weatber is not a factor in the cou–

·ideratiou of obstaclcs.

1t

will seem

almo~:>t

incredible to our railroad pcople in tue

United States that, witb ample fuutls aud competent engineers, ten months have not

sufficed to complete the survey of less than

100

miles, one-half of that distance being

a leve! plain.

In the mean time tbe company in France has dispatched many ship-loads of rails,

locon10tives, etc., cxpecting that at least the tin:Jt section would Le entirely finished

antl traiusrnnuing before now. The fault has been want

ofaümini~:>trati\·ejndgment,

and the working staff as first organized has now gone to pieces, aud within tllc past

few days a large party of engineers (all Frencb) have arrived tu replace vauaucies.

Mr. Bnrr, as far as is uow known, still remains as chief engiueer, altuongll

~;ome

of

bis former snbordinates bave made complaints agaiust bim to beadquarter;; at París.

It

is true that in t.bis country tbe administration is mnch more difficnlt tllan at borne,

bnt ín the roatter of the :\lerida road there hn-s been such an ahseuue of good jutlgrnent

and administrativa tact asto serve

a~

a

warning to irupresarios in

tbe

fnture.

Lake Maracaibo is fed by abont one hundred aud fifty riYers, each one exteuding

far inland, ruakiug tbe circumference of the lake

an

almost continuons swarnp, witb

occasional stretcbes of solid ground between the river systems. lt will therefore be

readily seen that a railway froru tbe Cordillera could not possibly arrive at the city

of Maracaibo except by an enormous expenditure of ruoney, far in excess of the rnost

cQstly works of a stmilar characrer in auy part of the world. A convenient port ou

one of the lake tribntaries must be selected as

a

terminus,

a.nu

from tbere ¡¡teamers

must connecL witb Maracaibo. Tbis naturally necessitates a system of lake aud river

navigation in connection witb the railway, and, recogniziug this fact, the contractor

was ill-aclvised enough to have a clause placed in tlle conces ·ion giviug him tlle

ex–

clusive rigbt of lake navigation. The absnrrlity of this is evident when it is con-

idered that hundreds of sailiug vessels have for generatioos tra\ersed the lake and

rivers, giving employment to thonsands of people, anrl that there already exist vari–

ous steam-suip lines, some under American charter. Appreciating t.llis, the cornpany

forrned by

de

l\1orny haste-rred

to

explaiu tha.t tbis exclusive privilege only

extentl.ed

to team uavigation, which is also a ridiculons assumptiou, as for years American

cornpauies organized in New York and doing business unuer Venezuelan license have

been actively engaged in the navigation of the lakeand its rivers, aud their exclusiun

woulu now bring abont an international question.

It

is much to be regretted that our own countrymen have not taken part

in

railway

matters iu tbis Repu blic,

ancl

the general opinion, as freely expressed in tbis section,

is to the etfect that if the Merida road, with all it.s natural drawbacks and unpopu–

larity, had beco from the first under American control the resnlt to-day would be

very differeut.

1\s tbe case now stanc!s, tinte and money bave been wasted, the prestige

of

tbe con–

strnctol·s has received asevere blow, aml the ouly thing tangible to

~:>how

for so many

montb of work and uch a 1arge outlay is au iucomplete survey aud

a

few hnndrecl

yards of tmck

Iaitl

at tbe village of Santa Barbara.

It

is expectecl tbat the recent

arn val of the new stafffrom France

m

ay briug order out of chaos; bnt a very difterent

system ruust be adopted, and enm shonlr1 the survey and con truction now proceed

satisfactorily, yet it is don btfnl whether Congress, in i ts sessioñ of February next, -wi

ll

approve the conces ion, even uuder modified and more rea

onabl<~

conuitions. (Re–

port by

E.

H.

Plumacher. U. S. Consul, Maracaibo, December

6, 1889.)

ECUADOR.

This country may be said to consist

of

three parts- the western slope, tbe Qnito

Va!ley,

antl

tbe

Na.po

region, so forruecl by tbe two Cordilleras of the Ancles tra.vers·

ing tbe eouutry from north tosouth. The Quito Valley having a general elevation

vf 7,000

fect

is

separateu iuto three parts by lateral ridges, called sierras; the first,

ou !>he soutb, contains the cities of Loja anu Cuenca antl is about 50 miles iu lengtb;

tbe mitldle

k1~in

about

130

miles in

len<rtb

i ·

rathcr barren and ha the citie of

Riobamba, Aml.Jato, aml Ta unga; tho

thi~d ~nü

ruost uortherl;", in which

is

situated

the city of Quito, the capital, is rich and

fertile.