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