Bahia Blanca, the “white bay,” is a thriving place. It is a name the significance of which is not yet wholly appreciated in the United States, or the world at large, for its importance has not yet been fully grasped. The growth of this city has been phenomenal, mushroom-like, and yet its development has been substantial. As a port its strategic value cannot well be overestimated. It is the only safe naval harbour for the big battleships, and the government has built an arsenal and docks on the eastern side of the estuary, called the Puerto Militar. It is a natural outlet for one of the richest agricultural sections of the republic. The wheat which was formerly shipped to Buenos Aires, and exported from that port, is now loaded on ocean liners from Bahia Blanca, and forwarded to Europe. The railroads are pushing out their lines west and south, and opening up new wheat and grazing lands each year, so that the shipments from this port are jumping by leaps and bounds. Not very long ago this site was nothing but a sandy waste, with an unimportant settlement at which only coasting vessels stopped. Now there are electric tramways and lights, great elevators and a good system of docks. The value of the land has increased and a few far-sighted individuals have reaped fortunes. The “boom,” if such it can be called, is still on as development progresses. The Great Southern Railway at first had a monopoly on the business of this port, but the Buenos Aires and Pacific has built into it, and now claims a share. The port works of the Great Southern form an addition by themselves and are called Ingeniero White, in honour of the engineer who built them. Several moles and elevators with an enormous capacity and which cost a million and a half of dollars have been constructed at these terminals. Puerto Galvan is the name of the Pacific Railroad terminals. To what extent Bahia Blanca will become a rival to Buenos Aires is uncertain, but it seems to me that there is room for both and to spare. It now ranks next after Rosario. Three hundred miles is a goodly distance, and each town ought to continue to grow rapidly, and neither necessarily at the expense of the other. Bahia Blanca is bound to expand, as she has the great undeveloped western pampas and the fertile part of Northern Patagonia right at her very doors. At the present time Bahia Blanca has a population in the neighbourhood of fifty thousand inhabitants.