DAMMING THE WATERS 69 



improve the water-supply, which was used wastefully 

 by the existing estates. There is nothing more sugges- 

 tive than the contrast between these stone dams, built 

 according to all the rules of hydraulics, and the network 

 of irregular channels, following the accidental variations 

 of the land and the slope, which preceded them, and 

 to which they have been accommodated as far as 

 possible. In some cases the primitive acequias could 

 not be altered so as to start from the dam. The 

 accumulations of water succeed each other down the 

 slope, held up by a simple barrier of branches and earth 

 which is periodically destroyed by floods. The modern 

 flood-proof dam (dique nivelador), which cuts the 

 torrent in its entire width, and enables them to make 

 use of its whole volume, allows a certain amount of 

 water to pass, for the use of the acequias lower down. 

 This falls back into the broad, stony bed, exposed to 

 evaporation and infiltration as it was before. 



Long before the development of the sugar industry 

 on a large scale, there was a typically urban life, 

 added to the common fund of pastoral life, at Tucuman. 

 The neighbouring cantons of the scrub Trancas, 

 Burruyacu, and Graneros sent cattle and mules to 

 Peru and Chile, like the other Argentine plains. But 

 Tucuman drew still greater profit from its position as 

 chief stage on the high road to Peru, at the point where 

 the plain passes into the mountain. Primitive Tucuman 

 was an excellent type of high-road village. The road 

 determined its position at the point where the Sali 

 had to be crossed. The first site of the town, near 

 Monteros, was abandoned in the eighteenth century, 

 when the high road to Peru settled in the sub- Andean 

 region and ceased to run through the Calchaqui valley. 

 The road sustained its chief industries, tanning and 

 harness-making for the muleteers of the Andes, and 

 waggon-making for the troperos of the plain. The 

 road and the people travelling along it afforded an 



