CHAPTER VII 

 ROADS AND RAILWAYS 



Roads on the plain — The salt road — The " trade route " — Trans- 

 port by ox-waggons — Arrieros and Tr operas — Railways and 

 colonization — The trade in cereals — Home traffic and the 

 reorganization of the system. 



The chapter devoted to primitive breeding and the 

 transport of cattle contains a sketch of the network of 

 routes over the Andes. One cannot expect to find in 

 the scheme of routes over the Argentine plains the 

 stern and obvious influence of natural conditicns. 

 The surface of these plains is, as a whole, broadly 

 open to traffic. Still, the map of the roads bears 

 much evidence of geographical exigencies. 



The hills which rise like islands out of the alluvial 

 plain are not all incapable of being crossed, and the 

 roads do not always skirt them. The road from 

 Buenos Aires to Peru runs north of 30° 40' S. lat. 

 on the very axis of the granite peneplain which forms 

 the northern part of the Sierra de Cordoba. The 

 Dean Funes ridge, which begins with an altitude of 

 2,500 feet between the Sierra Chica and these table- 

 lands, has always been used for communication between 

 Cordoba and the north-western provinces. There the 

 railway has taken the place of the primitive track. 

 Another important track crosses the Sierra de Cordoba 

 in the north of the Pampa de Achala, and used to 

 join Cordoba with Villa Dolores and the north of the 

 San Luis province. The southern part of the Sierra 

 de Cordoba and the Sierra de San Luis are, on the 



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