La Paz

La Paz, (1) a department of Bolivia, bordering on Peru, with an area of 171,200 sq. m., and a pop. (1895) of 595,000, not including some 2500 wild Indians. The La Paz cordillera contains the loftiest peaks of the Bolivian Andes, and much of the surface of the department is a dry plateau; but in the east the great mountains sink to the plain, and the country is richly watered.—The capital, La Paz, lies at the foot of a steep valley 11,952 feet above the sea, 42 miles SE. of Lake Titicaca. It has a handsome but unfinished cathedral, and a college, seminary, and medical school; but the houses are mostly of mud, and owing to the extremely uneven site present a very irregular appearance. The inhabitants, mostly Indians and half-breeds, carry on an active trade in copper, alpaca-wool, cinchona, &c. Pop. (1889) 57,000.—(2) A town of Entre Ríos province, in Argentina, on the Paraná, 530 miles by river N. by W. of Buenos Ayres. Pop. 6800.