96  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA
generating  electric  light  and  power  for  tram
systems.  On  the  eastern  side  of  Peru  there
are  about  3500  miles  of  navigable  rivers  for
light-draft  vessels,  drawing  8  to  15  feet,  all
of  these  streams  ultimately  emptying  into  the
Atlantic.
Iquitos  with  20,000  inhabitants,  on  the
Amazon,  2500  miles  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean,
is  the  center  of  the  rubber  industry,  and  is
more  accessible  from  New  York  than  from  the
capital  of  the  Republic,  Lima.
Peru  has  1840  miles  of  railway,  1300  being
standard  and  500  narrow  gauge.  Nearly  3500
miles  of  road  have  been  surveyed  and  are  in
various  process  of  construction.  Nominally
about  1200  miles  of  these  roads  are  owned
by  the  Government  but  are  operated  and  controlled ­
  by  the  Peruvian  Corporation,  Ltd.,
an  English  organization,  whose  presence  is
very  much  in  evidence  in  Peru,  and  which  also
operates  a  line  of  steamers  on  Lake  Titicaca.
Under  the  present  contract  with  the  government ­
  this  concern  is  to  control  the  railways
under  it  until  1973,  a  certain  percentage  of