Excess of exports over imports for the year 1882-'83, $6,183,625.16.

*

The exhibit for the United States is compiled from the record of this consulate.

Vessels entered and cleared for the year ended December 31, 1883.

Coffee.

Cocoa.

Hides..

Exports from La Guayra by articles for the year ended December 31, 1883.

Skins

Sundries..

Total

The latitude usually allowed to consular officers in making returns and submitting reports is availed of to embody herewith some information in reference to a few of the enterprises of the country as well as some isolated facts that may prove of interest.

Mines and minerals.-The mineral wealth of Venezuela, though not yet developed, is attracting much attention from abroad, and many enterprises are on foot or in process of organization to explore her territories and discover her hidden treasures. The rich auriferous deposits of the territory of Yuruary, 100 miles southwest of the mouth of the Orinoco River, are especial objects of interest, and the prosecution of mining in that section seems to be attended with good results. The company "El Callao," organized in 1871, though not fully equipped for work until 1875, has since that date to January 1, 1883, taken out over $9,000,000, and has distributed dividends to its shareholders amounting to the sum of $2,771,500.

Aroa, in the State of Lara, about 75 miles west of Puerto Cabello, is the site of rich deposits of copper ore. An English company has constructed a narrow-gauge railroad from the port of Tucacas to this point, and is mining and exporting the ore to Swansea, England. The exportations for the years 1880, 1881, and 1882 amounted to 44,596 tons, of the value of $1,700,000, and the exportations for the first six months of 1883 amounted to 13,738 tons, of the value of $625,000.

Phosphates are being mined in the neighboring islands of Orchilla and Aves, and exported thence to Baltimore and Philadelphia. Telegraphs.-The telegraphic system of the country is fairly well or

ganized, quite extensive, and affords satisfactory service. The main line runs from the eastern part of Venezuela through the city of Caracas to the borders of Colombia, where it is connected by wire with the city of Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The eastern end of the line is being rapidly extended to the port of Guiria, on the Gulf of Paria, from which point it will be connected by a short submarine cable with the island of Trinidad, and thence with the United States and Europe through cables already laid. The entire telegraphic system is owned and directed by the Government, but is at all hours open to public service. Messages are transmitted to all points at the uniform rate of one cent per word.

Gas and telephone.-Under the intelligent and energetic direction of Mr. J. A. Derrom, of Paterson, N. J., the cities of Caracas and La Guayra enjoy all the advantages of the telephone, and during the present month some enterprising citizens of New York will distribute gas-light to the city of Caracas. Measures are being taken to extend the telephonic system to all the principal cities of Venezuela.

Newspapers.-The first newspaper of the country was established in Caracas in the year 1811 by two citizens of the United States. The political, scientific, and literary press of the country now comprises about seventy periodicals.

THE CARACAS-LAGUAYRA RAILROAD.

Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, situated 10 miles from the coast, and 3,000 feet above the sea level, is the chief point of attraction for all foreigners visiting the country. The mean annual temperature of the city is 710.24 Fahr., the warmest periods of the year being the middle of April and the end of August, at which dates the sun is in the zenith. The greatest extremes of temperature noted since the year 1868 are 830.38 and 480.02 Fahr. A change from the warm climate of La Guayra to that of Caracas, distant only 10 miles, is at all seasons similar to a change from New Orleans to Saratoga. The rainy season extends from May to October, and the annual rain-fall is nearly 39 inches.

In concluding this desultory report some mention should be made of the railway completed June 27, 1883, between La Guayra and Caracas, a map of which is hereto appended. It should also be observed that this enterprise, insignificant in proportion as it may appear to the people of the United States, is of much importance as a factor in the industrial progress of this comparatively undeveloped country, it being the only railroad in Venezuela, with the exception of the unimportant line from Tucacas to the copper mines of Aroa. This railway, 23.6 miles in length, is of 3 feet gauge, laid with steel rails weighing 50 pounds to the yard, and with cross-ties of vera, a wood similar to lig num vitæ. It has a maximum grade of 34 per cent., which is continuous from La Guayra to a point 17 miles distant, with the exception of three short horizontal sections at water stations. It has a minimum curve of 140 feet radius. Indeed, the entire road is a succession of curves and reverse curves, through colossal excavations and over stupendous precipices. The total excavation to grade the road-bed amounts to 1,650,000 cubic yards, or nearly 40 cubic yards of excavation to each linear yard, two-thirds of which is through rock, and of which a great part was removed by dynamite. There are three viaducts and eight tunnels in the line of the railway, four of the latter being excavated through solid stone, from one of which the track debouches upon a

rocky shelf at a sheer perpendicular of 1,600 feet above the gorge of Boqueron. The cost of this railway, equipped with six locomotives, fifteen passenger and sixty freight cars, amounts to the sum of $2,000,000, nearly all of which has been contributed by English capitalists. It has been built under the supervision of General William A. Pile, formerly minister of the United States to Venezuela.

From an industrial point of view, the completion of this road is the inception of a new era in the history of Venezuela. The people, accustomed to the primitive methods of transportation, are now awakened to the fact that the old system of pack-mules and dump-carts must be abandoned, and that the vast riches of the interior must have these iron avenues for their convenient and expeditious transportation to the seaboard. And once that a railway southward from Caracas has pierced the mountain ranges that border the northern boundaries of Venezuela, beautiful valleys and broad plains, watered by the Orinoco and its tributaries, and teeming with exhaustless agricultural wealth, will pour their treasures into the lap of commerce. The peace of the country, happily undisturbed for several years past, is still assured; and the recent inauguration of a new administration under General Joaquin Crespo has been effected under such favorable auspices that the thought of reaction and revolution has been eliminated from the popular mind; so that it may now be fairly presumed that the day for the deliverance of Venezuela from inaction and isolation draws nigh, and that, like Mexico, with peace firmly established and constitutional government permanently secured, she may, in the near future, confidently hope for foreign aid in the development of her vast internal resources. The country now needs, and in every sense is worthy of an active and intelligent immigration. There is nothing wrong with the country, the climate, or the soil; and if its political and economical conditions shall be now permanently settled, the intelligent and thrifty masses of Europe will find here a congenial retreat.

WINFIELD S. BIRD,

Consul.

La Guayra, May 1, 1884.

UNITED STATES CONSULATE,

BESSEMER STEEL AND MANUFACTURES THEREFROM.

REPORT BY CONSUL WEBSTER, of SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND.

A commonly received opinion of Bessemer steel has been that it is a material of great toughness, containing a small per cent. of carbon, and being "only one remove from iron." Striking illustrations of its ductility are shown, as, for instance, a round bar 2 inches in diameter tied while cold, in a knot, with no break of the fiber.

A well-known English house sent to the Russian Exhibition some years ago a Bessemer railway axle tied in a knot; that axle was afterwards presented to the United States Government, and is now to be seen in the National Museum at Washington.

Until recently Bessemer steel has been thought to be quite unfitted for very many uses for which cast crucible steel was formerly exclusively employed, especially the making of cutting instruments. But this steel has been much modified and improved in its manufacture. It is certainly now much more than "one remove from iron," and it is employed

for a great number of purposes for which crucible steel was formerly thought to be indispensable.

On account of its greater cheapness, the sharp competition in trade, and the modifications which adapt it to a greater variety of uses, Bessemer-and it should be added its modifications, such as the SiemensMartin and the Davy, together with the Thomas-Gilchrist and other varieties may almost be said to be superseding crucible steel and crowding it out of the market. This, of course, cannot be done entirely; yet it is admitted by our best steel makers that it is nearly impossible for the most experienced to decide by the fracture whether a given sample of steel is Bessemer or crucible. It is also an open secret that thousands of tons of Bessemer are sold annually as "cast" steel for the home as well as foreign markets.

One of Sheffield's best makers, whose steel bears a good name in the United States, says he has recently charged his manager to be careful henceforth to label all his steel, so as to distinguish between Bessemer cast steel and crucible cast steel, he applying the word "cast" to both of them. This indicates how commonly Bessemer has come to be called cast steel. It is, in a sense, cast steel, since it is run into molds; and yet, as is well known, the term as thus applied is deceptive, cast steel being understood to be crucible steel.

It is also common to invoice steel as sold for such and such purposes without describing it as Bessemer or crucible or as belonging to either of the other varieties. The manufacturer above mentioned intends that his customers shall not think they are buying crucible steel when they are really receiving Bessemer. On the other hand, a steel manufacturer who does not make Bessemer is said to have "boasted"-that was the word used-that he had bought steel for $50 per ton and sold it for $250. The buyer who paid the latter price must have supposed he was buying crucible steel, since that is approximately the price for which respectable firms sell their "best cast steel" for wood-working tools, axes, hatchets, and other kindred purposes.

The large quantity of Bessemer steel sold in the Sheffield district is not all made here. About 10,000 tons were imported last year from Sweden. The quantity is annually increasing. The Swedish Bessemer is made of a better quality of iron than the English, is said to contain a larger per cent. of carbon and less impurity. Wood is used in the melting instead of coal, and the melted iron is run directly from the blast furnace to the converter, thus saving the remelting of the pig. The Swedish Bessemer, from its superior quality, bears a higher price than the English. There are many different brands, the price ranging from $50 to $100 per ton. English Bessemer sells for $20 to $30 per ton. The sale in Sheffield of each of these brands of Swedish Bessemer is under the exclusive control of some one individual or firm. The right is purchased from a London agent of the Swedish owners.

There are but few makers of Bessemer steel in this district, there being but eighteen converters in operation at the close of 1883, as against twenty-six in 1882. But Bessemer, both the English and Swedish, is kept and sold by nearly all steel manufacturers to supply the large and increasing demand. The Swedish comes to this country in the ingot, each ingot bearing the brand of the Swedish maker. These ingots are here reduced under the hammer to blooms and bars of sizes to suit the customer, and these are again stamped with the original Swedish brand.

There are "special Bessemer" steels, both Swedish and English,