Concerning its navigability, here are some data taken from an interesting little book by M. Georges Hersent on the port of Rosario:—— “During nine months of the year the navigation from the sea to the port of Rosario presents no difficulties to the great transatlantic steamers; indeed, it may be said that their maximum draught is limited only by the depth of the ‘Canal Nuevo,’ the new channel of Martin Garcia. Ships drawing 22 to 23 feet can load at Rosario and leave directly for the open sea, or come to discharge their cargo at the port. “During the period of low water, which lasts for barely three months in the year——from September to the end of December——there are only two channels with a less depth than 21 feet, that of Las Hermanas and that of Paraguayo. In the former, the island of Las Hermanas separates the bed of the river into two channels, of which the one most in general use hitherto has a depth of only 20 feet; but vessels may avoid it to-day, as the western channel has been dredged and deepened, and is of more than sufficient depth. “The second channel, which used to present some difficulty, is that of the Paraguayo, where there was only 17 feet of water. This state of things was happily not permanent, as the National Government has undertaken, at this spot, the work of deepening and levelling the Parana, which was completed in the course of the year 1904. “We may add that the State is engaged in maintaining, over a minimum width of 108 yards, a depth of 19 feet below the level of low water in the channel of Martin Garcia, and of 21 feet 1-1/2 inches over the whole course of the Parana, as far as Rosario. This maintenance will be necessary only at certain points in the river, as the depth of the latter is in general considerably above those figures.” As we have already said, the real commercial value of the Parana lies in the peculiarity of its banks, which make it along its whole course a series of natural quays. These banks form in many places almost vertical walls, and as the bed of the river is almost everywhere 25 feet below the surface, it follows that ships of large tonnage can not only ascend the river as far as the city of Rosario, or even to Colastiné, but can moor themselves alongside the banks as to a quay, without any labour or preparation being necessary. At some places——as at Rosario for example——the bank properly so-called is overhung by low cliffs, forming a kind of promontory raised many feet above the water-level, so that it is possible to utilise this difference of level in loading cargoes. By means of inclined planes or gangways, called _canaletas_, the goods collected in warehouses built upon the banks are quickly, thanks to the slope of the gangways, run into the holds of the vessels moored to the banks. It will be admitted that these conditions are unusually favourable to navigation, and explain the extraordinary development of a country in which nature has thus surpassed herself.