Inaugural Lecture 1889 17 



settlements were made at a distance from the sea which gave 

 facilities for exploring the whole of the valuable coast land 

 before proceeding to the less hospitable and more arid inner 

 regions. Latterly, however, railways have extended in 

 Australia as elsewhere though not at a rate comparable with 

 what is observed either in North or South America. 



In the Argentine Republic, which corresponds geographically 

 with Australia and with the United States of North America, 

 the fertile pampa is accessible for commercial purposes only 

 from the Atlantic and up to the present almost exclusively 

 from the River Plate. Hence as soon as the country became 

 settled and people began to prosper, railways became a necessity. 

 A few miles of the present Western Railway were laid down 

 in 1857 and a year or two afterwards the Northern of Buenos 



s now one of the most valuable lines in the country was 

 begun with the old material of the Balaclava military railway, 

 cttled political circumstances retarded the construction of 

 railways during the next twenty years; but in 1880 there 

 2300 kilometres of trunk line open which by branches 

 and extensions was doubled by 1885 and tripled by 1887; 

 so rapid is the progress after ground has been well broken 

 and it must go on at an ever-increasing ratio. For in such 

 countries railways take the place of or at least precede roads, 

 the roads being an evidence of greater advance in prosperity 

 and civilisation. 



The function of railways is different according as the 

 try is an old or a new one. In old countries they have 

 been put down to facilitate the communications of existing 

 populations, in new countries they are put down in order 

 to introduce a population which then makes roads and more 

 railways to enable it to move about. 



Another similar region in the East, the Transcaspian 



.tries of Asia, is being rapidly opened up by the Russians. 



D without any view to conquest the Transcaspian 



>vay is a great work from a purely commercial point of 



It is destined before long to form one of the most 



important trunk lints of communication of the world. 



iarkable and must at once strike the geographer 



B. HI. 2 



