One unfortunate feature is the differing width of track. It will be necessary to reload freight three times in the journey across the continent. From Valparaiso to Los Andes the gauge is standard. Between Los Andes and Mendoza it is one metre, and from Mendoza to Buenos Aires it is five feet eight inches. This may possibly be changed in the future, but it will be many years. In the meantime much trouble and extra work will be necessitated in freight traffic. To the passenger it means only a little annoyance, but not much delay. [Illustration: TRANSANDINO CHILENO RAILWAY, SHOWING ABT SYSTEM OF COGS.] CHAPTER XIII RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES In order to fully understand the anomalous position occupied by Church and State in the Spanish-American republics, it will be well to go back several centuries and study for a moment the development of the clerical policy of Spain, and its relations with the Church of Rome. With the discovery of the New World, the Church was placed in a position where it felt called upon to do something which it was next to impossible to undertake independently. It felt the responsibility of evangelizing the heathen in the newly-discovered countries, and yet it appreciated its inability to assume this burden, because it had not the means to propagate religion amongst a hostile people, which could only be advanced efficiently by means of a costly expedition. Hence it was necessary for the Holy See to proceed to convert the inhabitants of the New World through ecclesiastics, or other persons who followed the invading forces.