TOPOGEAPHY OF URUGUAY. 339 



keeping the centre of trade in its present position at the extremity of the 

 peninsula.* 



The local industries comprise vast snladeros, "meat factories," on the slopes of 

 the Cerro. Most of the factories belong to foreigners, and even the nursery 

 grounds are chiefly in the hands of the French Basques. On holidays, crowds 

 resort to Faao MoUno, Union, Cerrito and other suburban retreats, and in summer 

 Play a Ramirez and Pocifos on the Atlantic are much frequented by bathers. The 

 railways radiating in various directions enable the better classes to reside at 

 Piedras, Canelones, Sauce, Pando, at some distance from the capital. Good water 

 is drawn from the Rio de Santa Lucia, 32 miles to the north, with a large reser- 

 voir at Piedras lUO feet above the level of Central Square. 



Maldunado — Melo — Artigas. 



Maldonado, on a semi -circular bay, resembiitig that of Monte Video, and 

 sheltered from the east by the southernmost headland of Uruguay, offers better 

 anchorage than the capital, but it is too far removed from the entrance to the 

 Plate estuary, and is consequently little frequented by shipping, except when one 

 of the chronic revolutions endangers the approaches to Monte Video. Gold- 

 hunters often land at Maldonado, the nearest port to the auriferous district of 

 Minas, where, however, few fortunes have been made. 



On the Atlantic seaboard, north of Maldonado, the chief places are Roclia, 

 near the coast, Treinta y 7Ves, so named from a band of " thirty- three " 

 heroes in the Brazilian war of 1825 ; Nico Perez, terminal station (1893) of the 

 railway which is ultimately to connect Monte Video directly with Piio Grande do 

 Sul ; Melo (Cerro Largo), with lead, copper, and coal mines, besides fine granites 

 and porphyries; l^xsûy, Arligas, facing the Brazilian town of Jaguaiào, on the 

 opposite side of the Rio Jaguarào. 



Social and Material Condition of Uruguay. 



Despite foreign and domestic wars, revolutions, and political troubles of all 

 sorts, the population of Uruguay has steadily increased since the close of the 

 eighteenth century, having advanced from 30,000 in 1796 to nearly 702,000 in 

 1891. This increase in due in about even proportions to the natural excess of 

 births over deaths and to immigration, although many of the arrivals from Europe 

 pass on to Argentina after a short stay in the country. As in Brazil and 

 Argentina, the great majority of the immigrants are Italians, who at present 

 represent about one-seventh of all the inhabitants. Another important element 

 are the Basques, w^ho probably constitute over one-half of the 100,000 French and 

 Spaniards now (1894) settled in Uruguay. 



* Knight, Cruise of the Falcon, I., p. 106. 



