SOCIAL CONDITION OF ARGENTINA. 



471 



mount the high river banks and cross the streams with the water up to the axles 

 of their enormous wheels. 



But these resources, adequate for a rudimentarj^ traffic, had to give way to 

 steam when the transport trade began to acquire a serious development. The 

 growth of railway enterprise thus corresponds to that of material progress in 

 other directions, and at present the Argentine system rivals that of several 

 European States ; compared with the respective populations it even exceeds them 

 all, Belgium not excepted. But compared with the extent of the territory the 

 proportion is less favourable to Argentina, where the population is thinly scattered 

 over a region of vast extent. 



The lines are distributed very unequally over this region. Round the two 



Fig. 184. — Route of the Teansandine Railway. 

 Scale 1 : 1,800,000. 



.^WI^ ' 





West or breenwich 



30 Miles 



chief centres, Buenos Ayres and Rosario, they radiate in all directions, and also 

 afford concurrent routes parallel with the great navigable artery of the Parana. 

 But the northern provinces are not entirely traversed as far as the Bolivian 

 frontier, w^hile towards the west the passes over the Andes had not yet been 

 reached in 1891. Southwards the system extends no farther than Bahia Blanca, 

 beyond which in the whole of Patagonia there exists only the short line con- 

 necting the Welsh colony on the Rio Chubut with its port on the Golfo Nuevo. 



On the whole the traffic on the Argentine railways is considerable, both as 

 regards passengers and merchandise. But the cost of construction, averaging 

 about £7,300 per mile, seems very high for a country needing so few cuttings, 

 levellings, or other expensive works. This outlay, however, which is guaranteed 

 by the State for one-third of the lines, is explained by reckless speculation, loans 



