The Southern has in construction a line south to the port of San Antonio, to open up the rich lands on the borders of Patagonia. It will connect with a government road which is now building from San Antonio, which is a new port on the Gulf of San Matias, westward to Nahuel Huapi, and which will be about three hundred miles long. The government is to be commended for its far-sightedness in planning this enterprise. Already a large part of the road-bed is graded and track has been laid for fifty miles or more, but service has not yet been begun. Work has also been begun on a railroad from Puerto Deseado, still farther south than San Antonio, which will run inland to Nahuel Huapi and open up an extensive country. This is but the beginning of extensive railroad development in this large southern section of Argentina, and plans have already been formulated to extend other lines into the very heart of Patagonia, and over to Lake Buenos Aires. In all the government now owns and operates a little more than two thousand miles of main track, which will be increased to fully three thousand by the new extensions of the old ones now being built. The amount of traffic carried on these railroads is enormous and reaches big figures. I have before me the report of one of the greatest systems of Argentina for the year 1910. This states that the amount of grain carried by this line for that year, in tons of two thousand two hundred and five pounds, was as follows: linseed four hundred and two thousand one hundred and ninety-three, wheat nine hundred and ninety-one thousand one hundred and eighty-eight, corn one million one hundred and forty-two thousand four hundred. Other freight carried, not including its own supplies, amounted to five million nine hundred and eighty-three thousand one hundred and forty-three tons. Three hundred and forty-one thousand five hundred and seventy-seven head of live stock were transported. The number of passengers carried numbered almost fourteen millions. The gross receipts were twenty-five million dollars. Its capital stock is one hundred and seventy-five million dollars. It has paid for many years a regular dividend of six per cent., besides devoting large sums each year to betterments and extensions. All of these roads have been conducted along conservative lines, and their stocks are nearly all quoted on the London stock exchange considerably above par. CHAPTER XIV RELIGIOUS FORCES