130  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

4000  miles  of  this  distance.  About  600  miles
up  this  river  is  situated  the  town  of  Ciudad
Bolivar,  formerly  known  as  Angostura,  where
the  bitters  of  that  name  were  first  made.
Regular  lines  of  ocean-going  vessels  and
steamboats  run  to  this  inland  port,  the  river
being  navigable  for  smaller  vessels  to  San
Fernando  de  Apuri,  where  the  Apuri  River
joins  it  over  a  thousand  miles  from  its  mouth.
It  drains  a  territory  of  over  370,000  square
miles.  Other  navigable  rivers  are  the  Meta,
the  Portuguesa,  the  Yaracuy,  and  the  Escalante. ­
  Along  the  coast  of  Venezuela  there  are
about  30  harbors  and  32  ports.
For  its  size  there  are  few  railways  in  Venezuela, ­
  the  total  mileage  being  about  550,  and
the  chances  are  that  it  will  be  many  years  before ­
  there  will  be  any  marked  activity  in  this
field,  due  to  the  topography  of  the  country,  its
lack  of  population  and  its  tendency  to  revolutions. ­
  Some  idea  of  the  conditions  confronting ­
  the  engineer  may  be  had  when  I  state  that
the  German  railway  from  Caracas  to  Valencia,
a  distance  of  111  miles,  is  cut  through  the