At the end of 1922 the situation is greatly changed. Not only have many states been linked up but three sister Republics are in direct communication with Brazil by rail. São Paulo city communicates by systems under allied control with Uruguay; Argentina is in touch at the western edge of Rio Grande do Sul, where the town of Uruguayana stands on the river boundary between the two countries opposite to the Argentine port of Libres; Bolivia is reached at the frontier town of Corumbá, on the border of south-western Matto Grosso, as well as at the Madeira-Mamoré Falls in the north. Linking up with south-eastern Bolivia is the result of the penetration of south Matto Grosso by the North-Western of Brazil Railway; this line, which has direct communication with the city of S. Paulo, reached Itapura on the river Paraná a few years ago, and pushed on energetically from that western edge of S. Paulo State across the narrow southerly neck of the huge neighbour, arriving early in 1916 at Porto Esperanza on the river Paraguay, only a few miles from the objective of the road, Corumbá town on the frontier of Bolivia. This transportation service gives Bolivia an outlet of which the interior republic has stood in need since she was deprived of a seaport of her own on the Pacific; perforce sending her products out through other republics, Bolivia has been already aided in the north with the opening of the Madeira-Mamoré line, giving better access to the river highway of the Amazon. The North-Western line has pushed farther afield from the seacoast than any other in Brazil: the constructing company is Belgian, with headquarters in Brussels, and the Federal Government in this as in many other instances guarantees interest on the capital expended, a loan having been raised for this purpose in Paris in 1909. An able Brazilian engineer, Dr. Firma Dutra, directs the work; all the rolling stock, including dormitories and restaurant cars, has been built in Brazilian workshops with Brazilian hardwoods. Another approach, parallel to and south of the north-western, to the great stock-raising lands of Matto Grosso is offered now that the extension of the Sorocabana line from Salto Grande to the port of Tibiriça on the Paraná river is completed; Tibiriça is a famous cattle crossing where thousands of head of the stocky beasts reared on luscious interior pastures are brought into the State of S. Paulo. Their numbers have been greatly augmented since the opening of two packing-houses in S. Paulo at the end of 1914, and excellent service has been rendered by the Paulista enterprise, the Companhia de Viação São Paulo-Matto Grosso, which owns the port of Tibiriça, operates ferries, runs a steamboat service up the Paraná river to Jupiá (Itapura) where the North-Western brings merchandise from S. Paulo city, as well as service on three or four tributaries of the Paraná; the company has constructed a highway, now bordered with coffee