^8 TiMEHRI. 



struft a line from La Paz to meet the Argentine line on 

 the frontier. Again, a proje6l is under discussion to 

 extend the Rio Janeiro line, under international conces- 

 sions, right on to the north-west, through Bolivia and 

 into the heart of Peru. There are several other lines, 

 but being more stri6tly local these call for no particular 

 mention here, and we may therefore now proceed to the 

 consideration of another and yet greater proje6l that is 

 being floated in the United States, and which is destined 

 to link together, as with one continuous chain, all the 

 countries of the New World, from Ottawa to Buenos 

 Ayres and from San Francisco to Vi6loria in Chile, thus 

 bringing New York within twelve days of Valparaiso. 



The Colombia Railway Company, with a capital of 

 $100,000,000, proposes, as the prospe6lus expresses it, 

 to constru6l a railroad " to skirt the Andes, cross the 

 Pampas, and conne6l generally with everywhere" — in 

 South America, of course. The Company as organised 

 includes the establishment of steamship lines to ply 

 between the North and South American termini 

 until such time as the present Mexican lines shall have 

 been conne6led with those of Central America, thus 

 completing the last link of the chain between the North 

 and the South. The Northern South American terminus 

 of this gigantic road will be at Carthagena, on the Carib- 

 bean Coast of Colombia. Thence the line will go south, 

 skirting the eastern flank of the Andes and the head 

 waters of the Amazon, to points in Peruvian and 

 Argentine territory, where it will conne6l with the 

 railroad systems of those countries described above, 

 as either now in operation or in course of con- 

 strudlion. The steamers of this line will con- 



