470 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



Argentina has acquired a surprising development during the hist decades, though 

 not to the extent represented by misleading ofBeial returns. According to Mulhall 

 the real annual movement of exchanges in recent years, marked by a great com- 

 mercial crisis, has been about £'32,000,000, and in 1889, the most prosperous year, 

 £38,000,000 ; altogether the collective trade represents a sum of from £8 to £10 

 per head of the population. In this movement Great Britain takes by far the 

 largest part, followed (1891) by France, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, and the United 

 States in the order named. But since 1892 this order has been disturbed, and at 

 present Germany ranks before Belgium. 



Nearly all the exports are either animal products or agricultural produce, while 

 the imports include textile fabrics, wines and alimentary substances, machinery, 

 hardware, coal and petroleum. About two-thirds of the foreign trade are centred 

 in Buenos Ay res. 



Navigation with foreign countries, including the coast and fluvial services, with 

 Uruguay, has increased nearly five-fold during the last decade, and to this must be 

 added the development of the river navigation in Argentina itself. Steam has 

 taken by far the largest part of this increase, and Great Britain takes the first place 

 in the shipping returns, the national flag following next in order of importance, 

 A single Navigation Company owns no less than 120 steamers plying on the rivers 

 of the interior. On the great navigable arteries many English and other ship- 

 owners hoist the Argentine flag to avoid the heavy harbour dues which are levied 

 on foreign craft. According to a legal fiction of the local administration, the 

 course of the Uruguay itself is regarded as an "ocean," at least in the section 

 between Concordia and Salto. Thanks to the railways, however, the right bank 

 along the Entre-Rios district is being rapidly transformed to a continuous wharf, 

 busy with sea-borne trafiic. 



Communications — Railways — Education. 



The era of railway enterprise began in 1857 by the construction of a metro- 

 politan line running from Buenos Ayres to the south-western suburb of Flores. 

 But at first progress was slow in the Plateau regions, where the easy natural 

 routes across the level pampas rendered railway communication less urgent than in 

 other American countries. Before the introduction of wheeled traffic, travellers 

 for whom time was an object traversed the solitudes with a whole drove of horses 

 led at a gallop by a mare, whose tinkling bells brought the tropiUa to a stand at 

 every station. When his mount was tired, the rider sprang into a fresh saddle, 

 and so the pace was kept up from post to post, and distances of 70 or even 90 miles 

 were covered in a single day. But for merchandise conveyed by pack-mules, or in 

 lumbering carts, the day's journey rarely exceeded 24 miles, and in disturbed dis- 

 tricts the convoy had to outspan at night and form lager against a possible 

 surprise by predatory Indians. 



Then followed the coaching days, when diligences and other vehicles with 

 long teams of horses crossed the plains at full speed, tearing through the tall 

 grasses and dense patches of thistle, scarcely slacking the pace to descend and 



