Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/277



ACTUALITIES OF ROZARIO (SANTA FE). 247

yellow, one black, and one sand, and careful drying pro- duced a serviceable article.

The first sod of the Central Argentine Railway (see the " Parana and Cordoba R. R./^ a paper read at the meeting of the R. Geog. Society, Jan. 23, 1860, by Allan Campbell, Esq., C.E.) was turned by President General Mitre in April, 1863. It is the first great link of interoceanic communica- tion, and it will affect, when finished^ one half of Argentine- land, an area exceeding the total of Great Britain and Ireland, France and Spain, and fitted to support a hundred millions of inhabitants. The initial section will probably reach Cordoba some time this year, thanks to President Sarmiento, who there decreed an Industrial Exhibition, with a view of pushing on the works. From Rozario to Cordoba the direct distance is 73| leagues (232 English miles), and the line adopted measures 247 miles, of which 240 are straight, seven are curved, and only four run over broken surfaces. The profile of the country is one vast plain, an ocean of land, till it approaches the Sierra, where the higher levels are well wooded. Thus, while the railway mile in the Brazil costs 20,000/., and proves the folly of expensive works in young countries with sparse populations, here it can be completed for 6400/. This is the sum upon which the Government guarantees 7 per cent., and the total of 247 miles wiU not attain 1,500,000/. The law of 1857 increased the previous concession to one square league (3*25 miles) on each side of the line from Rozario to Cordoba, except the four leagues near these two great termini, and breaks of one league about Frayte Muerto and Villa Nueva. Thus, when the works touch the foot of the Andes, the company will own a little kingdom of 3600 square leagues — fine arable and grazing ground, to be held in plenary possession on the condition of its being colonized. They should have military settlements echelonnes at every