TRANSPORT BY WATER 257 



The transport of quebracho timber and tannic acid is 

 the chief item of its trade. The maximum draught 

 of the vessels it admits at normal low water is six 

 feet. Some of the ports on the left bank (Esquina, 

 Goya) and all the ports on the right bank (Recon- 

 quista, Barranqueras, etc.) are at some distance from 

 the main bed, or lateral arms. The Chaco works 

 have generally a flotilla of steamers and barges. It 

 is the exporters of timber and extract of quebracho to 

 Europe who most strongly demand the deepening of 

 the bed of the Parana above Santa Fe. Sailing ships 

 share with the river steamers the transport of the 

 products of the Paraguay and of Corrientes (hides, 

 tobacco and mate). The transport of oranges alone 

 from San Antonio, Villeta, Pilar and Humaita repre- 

 sents an item of tens of thousands of tons. 



The third section of the river stretches from 

 Corrientes to Posadas, and beyond. Sailing ships have 

 disappeared from this section, as they cannot make the 

 Apipe rapids. Steamers of four and a-half feet draught 

 and 150 tons are now used on it, but they cannot 

 proceed at low water. They provide a direct service 

 between Buenos Aires and Posadas, though the service 

 is not very economical, because it does not permit 

 them to use to the full the transport-capacity of the 

 river below Corrientes. Most of the goods for Posadas 

 are, therefore, trans-shipped at Ituzaingo, below the 

 rapids, or at Corrientes. The steamboat companies 

 which serve Posadas are obliged, in order to secure 

 the economical transport of goods shipped on the 

 upper Parana, to maintain lines which go up the 

 Paraguay as far as Asuncion, and take on at Corrientes 

 the goods that come from Posadas. Higher up, the 

 falls of the Guayra and the Yguassu set an impassable 

 limit to the enterprise of Argentine vessels. Boats on 

 the stretch above Yguassu on the Parana feed the 

 railways of the Brazilian tableland. The traffic of 

 the upper Parana consists chiefly of mate from Misiones 



17 



