314 SELLING LATIN AMERICA ashore. Without being conversant with these conditions one can hardly realize the strain and pressure exerted upon packing cases at such times. After the goods have been brought to land by the none too gentle longshoremen, they are opened by the customs authorities and exam ined, and are then placed upon trains for forwarding into the interior points, for prac tically all these ports are the terminus of some railway leading into the remote inland dis tricts. When they have gone as far as the train can take them, they are then consigned to the tender mercies of the muleteer, aided and abetted by the llama, burro or mule, and may be weeks on the road to their final desti nation. The varying climatic changes to which they are subjected should also be given due con sideration. Leaving the ice-bound northern ports of the States in winter, they come through the storm tossed waters of either or both oceans to the port of disembarkation, where for days they may rest under the broil