Heretofore it has been necessary to go around through the Straits of Magellan, a voyage of ten days, in order to reach the west coast of Chile from Buenos Aires, the metropolis of the southern hemisphere. This has been reduced to a little over a day. It brings Chile nearer to London by nine days. It is almost in the same latitude as Cape Town and Melbourne, and may eventually provide a shorter route to Australia from England, if steamers on one coast should run in conjunction with those on the other. With the present steamship connection, via the west coast and Panama, it will be possible to go from New York to Buenos Aires, or _vice versa_, in twenty days, and this will probably be reduced to at least eighteen days before a great while. At present the best time made is twenty-four days by the east coast route, and it generally requires more, as the boats stop for two or three days oftentimes at Rio de Janeiro and Santos on their way down and back. When the Panama Canal is completed, there will no doubt be a direct line of good steamers that will run from New York direct to Valparaiso. This route will be then still more desirable and the trip will be made to Valparaiso in not more than two weeks. North of Mendoza the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway has pushed a line to San Juan, capital of the province of the same name. This region is rather sparsely settled, but it has a good irrigation system and will no doubt attract settlers because of the profits in fruit culture. South of Mendoza a branch has been built to San Rafael and another is being constructed to San Carlos. Although most of the country traversed by these branches presents the appearance of a hopeless, flat and unproductive desert, it possesses some of the finest soil in the republic when once irrigation is introduced. Two and even three crops of cereals can be produced, so it is said, and it is especially well adapted for grapes and alfalfa. With these and many other branches, and the extension of its lines to Bahia Blanca, the Pacific road now has the greatest mileage of any of the Argentine railroads. The Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway may be said to bisect the country into two parts. North of this line by far the most important railroad is the Central Argentine. This company controls two thousand five hundred and thirty miles of track, and is the third system in number of miles in the republic. By the absorption of a number of smaller lines it now has a network of main lines and branches which serve that section of Argentina. The last absorption was of the Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway, which added more than a thousand miles to its lines and gave it a monopoly of railway service from the metropolis to the northwestern provinces. It now operates two main lines between Buenos Aires and Rosario. It also has under construction extensions and branches which will add nearly six hundred miles of track to its mileage.