[107] Coll. de Angelis, v.
[108] Est. Zeballos, Descripción amena de la Republica Argentina, vol. i, "Viàje al païs de los Araucanos" (Buenos Aires, 1881).
[109] Martin de Moussy says that a more direct route, avoiding the detour to the north by the Rio Tercero, was followed in the eighteenth century between Buenos Aires and San Luis, by way of Salto and the Rio Quinto as far as the latitude of fort Constitución (Villa Mercedes). Woodbine Parish's map (1839) and Napp's map (1876) both show a road by way of Salto and Melincue to the Rio Cuarto, where it joins the ordinary road. However that may be, these roads were never used regularly, from fear of the Indians or—which comes to the same thing—because the area they cross, in the south of the actual territory of the provinces of Santa Fé and Córdoba, was not yet colonized.
[110] Between 1852 and 1862, during the period when relations were suspended between the Argentine Confederation and Buenos Aires, there was a beginning of a general reorganization of the roads in harmony with the new political conditions. The road from Santa Fé and Paraná to Concepción (in Uruguay) across the Entre Rios tablelands, and from there to Montevideo, had owed its initial importance to the closing of the lower Paraná under Rosas, and Woodbine Parish records that there was already a good deal of smuggling there. This road became an essential artery when Paraná made itself the federal capital under Urquiza. He intended to connect Paraná with the western provinces, and he created a mail service from Santa Fé to Córdoba. Ephemeral as the good fortune of Paraná was, its influence on the organization of the roads of Argentina was too material to be ignored by the geographer.
[111] According to the details given us by De Angelis (1837, Introduction to the Diario del viaje al Rio Bermejo de Fray Francisco Moritto, Coll. de Angelis, vol. vi) a convoy of fourteen wagons from Salta to Tucumán required three relays of oxen. The first, comprising a hundred animals, went from Salta to Tucumán; the second, of 130 animals, went from Tucumán to the Buenos Aires frontier; the third (84 animals), went on to the capital. The first and last relays were hired animals, the second alone being the property of the tropero.
[112] Thirty days from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, and seventy days from Buenos Aires to Jujuy, says Barrero (F. Barrero, Descripción de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata, end of the eighteenth century, published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Buenos Aires, 1911).
[113] The line from Bahía Blanca to the Rio Negro, of which the Neuquen line is a continuation, was constructed in 1896.
[114] The continuation of many of these lines was contemplated for the future, so as to secure for them at a later date a long-distance traffic. The Resistencia and Formosa lines, which reach the Andes, may compete for traffic with the Rosario and Tucumán lines. In Patagonia, the continuation across the Andes of the line from San Antonio to Lake Nahuel Huapi has been considered. A pass has been found at a height of 4,000 feet. When this plan is carried out, the Trans-Andean from Nahuel Huapi would be in a position to compete successfully with the Trans-Andean from Uspallata, which is condemned by its elevation to remain a passenger line. These plans, still far from realization, do not deprive the Ramos Mejia lines of their character as colonization lines, entirely devoted at present to conveying the timber of the Chaco and the wool of Patagonia.
[115] J. Lopez Mañan, El actual problema agrario (Buenos Aires, 1912, Ministerio de agricultura, Dirección General de agricultura y defensa agricola).
[116] The war and the difficulties of marine freightage have lessened the seriousness of the problem of carrying goods rapidly by rail in Argentina.