JUNCAL STATION.
The first practical steps in this undertaking were made by two English-Chilean engineers, John and Matthew Clark. They obtained the necessary concession from Argentina in 1872, and from Chile two years later. The Chilean government guaranteed seven per cent. on a capital of three millions of dollars. But this concession was unsatisfactory. In 1889 the actual work of construction was begun, but it was stopped after less than twenty miles had been completed. The old concession having lapsed a new one was granted in 1903 to the Transandine Construction company on a five per cent. guarantee for twenty years. In 1906 the road was opened to Juncal, and in 1909 to Caracoles, the mouth of the Chilean end of the tunnel. The entire distance from Los Andes to the tunnel is forty-eight miles. In that distance the altitude rises almost eight thousand feet. The grade in places reaches eight per cent. There are several miles of the Abt system of cogs. Tunnels and bridges are numerous, and a number of avalanche sheds have been built. The Chilean slopes of the Andes are much more abrupt than those on the Argentina side, and the work of construction has been correspondingly more difficult. It provides a grand scenic route for the jaded continental traveller that furnishes scenery as grandly picturesque as anywhere else in the world.
One unfortunate feature is the differing width of track. It will be necessary to reload freight three times in the journey across the continent. From Valparaiso to Los Andes the gauge is standard. Between Los Andes and Mendoza it is one metre, and from Mendoza to Buenos Aires it is five feet eight inches. This may possibly be changed in the future, but it will be many years. In the meantime much trouble and extra work will be necessitated in freight traffic. To the passenger it means only a little annoyance, but not much delay.
TRANSANDINO CHILENO RAILWAY, SHOWING ABT SYSTEM OF COGS.
CHAPTER XIII
RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES
In order to fully understand the anomalous position occupied by Church and State in the Spanish-American republics, it will be well to go back several centuries and study for a moment the development of the clerical policy of Spain, and its relations with the Church of Rome. With the discovery of the New World, the Church was placed in a position where it felt called upon to do something which it was next to impossible to undertake independently. It felt the responsibility of evangelizing the heathen in the newly-discovered countries, and yet it appreciated its inability to assume this burden, because it had not the means to propagate religion amongst a hostile people, which could only be advanced efficiently by means of a costly expedition. Hence it was necessary for the Holy See to proceed to convert the inhabitants of the New World through ecclesiastics, or other persons who followed the invading forces.