Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/187



A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES. 157

deep channel and securing anchorage near the shore. He "would, moreover, trace a suitable land-line by throwing out to double the length of the Moles (880 yards) embankments, with quays and wharfs, reclaiming ground to the extent of 230 cuadras cuadradas (the square of 150 varas, each of 34 inches = 22,500 varas). This emblayement would give room for docks larger than any save those of Liverpool, for a Grand Central Station where all the railways would meet, for Custom-house buildings, platforms, and other neces- saries. Moreover, it could spare 120 cuadras for a pro- menade, here so much wanted, and to be sold as building ground at prices which would to a great extent pay off the cost of the proposed works. But he is persuaded that such changes should be made in a tentative way. The causes that formed the delta-islands of the Parana are still active, and in the natural order of events banks must be growing up between the mouth of the Uruguay and the Parana de las Palmas. Finally, no company would do justice to such works; they can hardly be entrusted to a Government which rarely outlasts three years and ends in a smash â€” in fact, my friend comes to the wise conclusion that the scheme is too vast for the young country in its present backward state.

Meanwhile, in April, 1 868, the Government of President Sarmiento signed a contract with the Impresarios, Messrs. Madero and Proudfoot, to carry out the plans of Messrs. Miller and Bell, C.E. The sum is fixed at $7,000,000, which appears large, but which will not be sufficient. The work is mainly a huge tidal dock, with a narrow entrance, which will make it a mere silt-trap. It is, moreover, to be finished in five years, an imprudent and hasty period. The scour from the north-west and south-east would be checked by such an obstacle ; the diminished flow would render dredging useless ; the fringing bank of the river would