TOPOGRAPHY OF AEGENTINA. 447 



when the Platean territories were severed from the political and commercial 

 supremacy of Peru, and constituted a separate viceroyalty in direct dependence 

 on the home Government. By the close of the eighteenth century Buenos Ayres 

 was already a large city with 50,000 inhabitants, and as many more in the 

 surrounding district. 



Although v>^ars and civil strife were ushered in with the period of political 

 independence, Buenos Ayres never ceased to develop, and since European 

 immigration has assumed the character of an exodus, the capital of La Plata, 

 till recently inferior to several other places in South America and to the two 

 chief cities of Australia, now ranks as the largest centre of population in the 

 whole of the southern hemisphere.* At times local revolutions, epidemics, and 

 financial crises have occasioned a temporary falling off; but the normal yearly 

 increase by the excess of births over the mortality ranges from 10,000 to 

 14,000, and to this must be added a share of the general immigration, estimated 

 at about one-fifth of all the passengers landed. 



The city, covering a very large area in proportion to its population, extends 

 for a space of about ten miles along the river, from Belgrano to Barracas, and for 

 about the same distance from the estuary towards the inland plains. North west- 

 wards a long suburb stretches away in the direction of the Parana ; westwards 

 several quarters are advancing towards San José de Flores ; m the south con • 

 tinuous lines of houses reach all the way to La Boca and Barracas on the banks 

 of the Piachuelo, and the whole municipality comprises a space of about 70 

 square miles; but the ground actually covered by structures is not more than 18 

 square miles, or about half the extent of Paris. Since 1870 Buenos Ayres, like 

 Pio, Monte Video, and all the other large South- American cities, has been amply 

 supplied with tramwaj'^s, which do a relatively larger business than those of 

 European towns. Six local railways also radiate from the quays to several urban 

 stations. 



Before the creation of colossal fortunes by trade and speculation, all the 

 streets and all the houses "were very much alike. As regulated in colonial times 

 by a formal enactment of the Council of the Indies, the streets had an average 

 width of 16 tares (45 feet), and formed manzanas, or blocks, 430 feet on all sides, 

 with footpaths about three or four feet wide along both sides of the road- 

 way. The normal type of dwelling, modelled on those of Cadiz and Seville, 

 presents to the street an apartment with two windows, and a railed vestibule 

 giving a view of the shrubs aud flowers of a patio, or inner court, surrounded by 

 chambers. 



Formerly the houses had only one storey, or often merely a ground-floor. 

 But the increasing value of the land, about the same in the central quarters as 

 that of European capitals, has induced the ground landlords to build upwards, as 

 the busy quarters — in the east near the harbour, in the north near the Palermo 

 park and the fashionable Belgrano district — are being gradually reconstructed 



* Topulation of Buenos Ayres, July 31, 1893 : 569,122. 



