. Europe and other continents . , and unpro-gressive. There is practically no manufacturing, and it iseven necessary to import some of the food that is are few, and only about five hundred miles of railwayhave been built in the entire country. The Magdalena River,however, is navigable. What city is near its mouth ? Bogota, the capital and largest city, is situated farin the interior and at an elevation of about a mileand a half above sea level. It has an agreeable cli-mate, even though within the tropics. Ecuador. — Why should this name, the Spanish for equa-tor, be applied to t
. Europe and other continents . , and unpro-gressive. There is practically no manufacturing, and it iseven necessary to import some of the food that is are few, and only about five hundred miles of railwayhave been built in the entire country. The Magdalena River,however, is navigable. What city is near its mouth ? Bogota, the capital and largest city, is situated farin the interior and at an elevation of about a mileand a half above sea level. It has an agreeable cli-mate, even though within the tropics. Ecuador. — Why should this name, the Spanish for equa-tor, be applied to this country ? In the Andes of Ecua-dor there are many volcanoes, including Cotopaxi, the 13-1 SOUTH AMERICA loftiest active- volcano in the world, and Chimborazo,which is still higher but no longer active. Naturally, because of its position, this country has a hot,damp climate near sea level (Fig. 80), but is much moretemperate on the mountain slopes. The principal occu-pations are cattle raising and farming. The chief farm. Fig. 99. A native house in Ecuador. Can you suggest reasons for building it on postsrather than on the ground ? products are wheat and barley on the highlands, andcoffee, sugar-cane, and cocoa on the warm lowlands. Thelatter is the most important product of Ecuador, andfully one-fifth of all the cocoa produced in the worldconies from there. To cultivate cocoa the underbrush is cleared from theforest and cocoa trees are planted in the shade of the largerforest trees. This delicate plant requires not merely shadebut also a warm, humid atmosphere with copious rains. At ECUADOR 135 the end of the fifth or sixth year, having reached a heightof eight or nine feet, it begins to bear fruit. The tree, whichat maturity is twenty or thirty feet high, has small pink andyellow blossoms which grow directly from the main trunk andbranches. It blossoms throughout the year, and its leaves arealways green. From each blossom there develops a golden-colored pod,several inche
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