ARGENTINA 95 



green rows come down to meet them in seemingly endless 

 parallels, yielding to 80 bushels per acre, even under the rnle-of- 

 thiimb methods to which the Italian farmer (and they are all 

 Italians here )is wedded. 



"A short 30 miles south of Buenos Aires is situated the city 

 of La Plata, a stucco sepulchre of mis-spent capital, whose sole 

 claim to importance lies in its title to be called the provincial 

 capital. The mania for establishing artificial towns outside a 

 radius of commercial activity furnishes a curious comment on the 

 Argentine character. 



"Following the coast for yet another 50 miles, we come to Cape 

 Las Piedras, which marks the entrance of the Plate estuary on 

 the Argentine side, and is also the upper cape of San Borombon 

 Bay. It is an insignificant, poor-spirited bay^a quarter bite 

 from the side of a big apple — but its name has a large significance 

 to the most important sheep-breeding district in the country. 

 The river Saladn, rising at a point 200 miles directly inland fvom 

 Buenos Aires, and resembling a long series of lagoons rather than 

 a river, halts through a series of imperceptible depressions till 

 it reaches the inner lip of San Borombon. Here it meets with a 

 succession of low sand-dunes thrown up along the coast by the 

 action of the tides. After heavy rains, the water is sufficiently 

 served by the narrow outlet of the river, whose bar has, more- 

 over, a constant tendency to silt up. 



"As the coastline falls round into the port of Bahia Blanca, 

 it is roughly paralleled by the scattered outcrop of the Ventana 

 hills running to meet those of Curumalan, of whose system tbey 

 form a part. The height nowhere exceeds 4000 feet, and on 

 nearing them their rugged outline is found to be fissured by 

 numerous fertile valleys. These collect sufficient moisture to 

 send down half a dozen streams to the coast, the longest of which 

 does not exceed 100 miles, while their volume varies in exact 

 proportion to the local rainfall. 



"The progress of the coast belt — as indeed that of the whole 

 Eepublic — is inseparably bound up with its railway develop- 

 ment. The sandy shores do not favour a sheltered anchorage. 

 Between Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca there is none worthy 

 the name, and Buenos Aires port itself is largely artificial. 

 Within the queen province every ton of freight and every bucket 

 of water must.be lirought to its destination bv artificial m^ans. 

 "Without railways and wells, the Pampa would be as impossible 



