[Illustration: MAP VI.--THE RAILWAYS. _It is impossible to give the entire system. Only the main lines are given. Of the narrow-gauge lines of the Pampean region only those which connect the system of northern Argentina with Buenos Aires are given. The map shows the double direction of the Pacific system from Villa Mercedes, to Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca. It gives only an imperfect idea of the way in which the lines ending at the ports of the Parana and the Rio de la Plata (Santa Fe, Rosario, San Nicolas, Buenos Aires and La Plata) overlap and cross each other._ To face p. 226.] The rise in the value of land and the advance of colonization led, at each of those crises of development which characterize the recent history of Argentina, to a multiplication of railway concessions granted by the national Government and the various provincial authorities. These have to be bought up by the leading companies, as each of them wanted to keep exclusive control of the region in which it had established itself. This concentration could not be accomplished in a perfectly methodical way, and the various systems now overlap, which is not to the interest of the companies. Thus Villa Maria, on the Central Argentine line from Rosario to Cordoba, is also served by a line belonging to the Santa Fe railways and by a line of the Pacific Company which puts it in communication with Buenos Aires. On the other hand, the Central Argentine penetrates to the very heart of the area of the Pacific at Junin.