Nations no less than individuals are liable to financial failure, but with her grand and inexhaustible native resources, backed by the energy of her adopted citizens, this republic is as sure as anything mortal can be to soon recover from her present business depression, and to astonish the world at large by the rapidity of her financial recuperation. Her present annual crop of wool exceeds all former record in amount, and is authoritatively estimated at over thirty million dollars in value. To this large industrial product is to be added her prolific harvest of maize and wheat, together with an almost fabulous amount of valuable hides.
City of Rosario.--Its Population.--A Pretentious Church.--Ocean Experiences.--Morbid Fancies.--Strait of Magellan.--A Great Discoverer.--Local Characteristics.--Patagonians and Fuegians.--Giant Kelp.--Unique Mail Box.--Punta Arenas.--An Ex-Penal Colony.--The Albatross.--Natives.--A Naked People.--Whales.--Sea-Birds.--Glaciers.--Mount Sarmiento.--A Singular Story.
The route to Rosario is rather monotonous by railway, taking the traveler through a very flat but fertile region, over prairies which are virtually treeless, not unlike long reaches of country through which the Canadian Pacific Railroad passes between Banff, in the Rocky Mountains, and Port Arthur, on Lake Superior. The monotonous scenery is varied only by a sight of occasional herds of cattle, feeding upon the rich grass, with here and there a mounted herdsman, and the numberless telegraph poles which line the track. It is at least a seven hours' journey from Buenos Ayres to Rosario. Occasionally a marshy reach of soil is encountered where large aquatic birds are seen, such as flamingoes, storks, cranes, herons, and the like.
Rosario, in the province of Santa Fé, is the second city in point of population and importance in the Argentine Republic. It is a young and promising capital, hardly yet fairly launched upon its voyage of prosperity, but so far it has been singularly favored by various circumstances. The place is arranged in the usual crisscross manner as regards the streets of this country, which, unfortunately, are too narrow for even its present limited business. In place of twenty-four feet they should have been laid out at least double that width, in the light of all experience has developed in these South American cities. This new town is situated a little less than three hundred miles by water from Buenos Ayres, and about two hundred by land, railroad and steamboat connection being regularly maintained between them. The site is admirably chosen on the banks of the Paraná River, fifty or sixty feet above its level, and it is destined to become, eventually, a great commercial centre. In 1854 it was only a large village, containing some four thousand people. It is the natural seaport, not only of the rich province of Cordova, but also of the more inland districts, Mendoza, San Luis, Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy, the first named having a population of half a million. Owing to the height of the river's banks, merchandise is loaded by "shutes," being thus conducted at once from the warehouses to the hatches of the vessels. Already a number of foreign steamships may be seen almost any day lying at anchor opposite the town, while the railway communications in various directions have all of their transportation capacity fully employed. One of these lines reaches almost across the continent to Mendoza, at the eastern slope of the Andes, west from Rosario. Other roads run both north and south from here. The foreign and domestic trade of the place is second only to that of Buenos Ayres. Vessels drawing fifteen feet of water ascend the river to this point. As a shipping port, Rosario has to a certain extent special advantages even over the larger city, being two or three hundred miles nearer the merchandise producing points.