The works are not all equally wealthy. They are scattered over about ten degrees of latitude, north of 30 deg. S. lat., within reach of the river, which keeps them in communication with the world, and at the same time has enabled them to tackle the full breadth of the forest. The _quebracho_ is particularly abundant north of Santa Fe and south of the Argentine part of the Chaco, where it is the life and soul of the forest. The works which have been set up there, in the midst of the denser forests, have plenty of capital, and this enables them to nurse their supplies and buy timber at a distance. The forest is still almost virginal at their gates, so that they have a long future in front of them. On the other hand, the oldest works, on the southern fringe of the forest, and that of Corrientes, on the left bank of the Parana, are already paralysed for want of timber. The works are all at a short distance from the river; not only for convenience of exporting their products, but because this is the only part of the Chaco where one can find fresh water. And the tannic-acid factory needs a great deal of fresh water. Along the river, in a belt about thirty to sixty miles wide, we find a permanent hydrographic network such as is found nowhere else on the plain. It consists of long series of marshes covered with rushes (_canadas_), and in places they become at their mouths regular streams with well defined beds. The underground water also is generally fresh and plentiful, whether it is due to the abundant rain or to infiltration from the Parana, and many of the works have successfully bored for it. In these parts one suffers from too much water as frequently as from thirst. On these immense and almost horizontal surfaces the water spreads from the _canadas_ over the whole forest. The railway, and even the houses, then stand out of a sheet of stagnant water, which takes months to disappear. Trunks which are badly placed, lying in the stations to be removed--sometimes, according to the market, lying there for years--are half buried in the mud. The waggons find it hard to move in the roads. Mules, which pay very well in the dry forests of the west, could not make the effort that is required here, and they use oxen--the finest beasts for a muddy country. The long-horned, lean creole cattle drag the waggons with difficulty, and a _correntino_, with long slender legs, shod with mud, guides and urges them, looking like a crane with his slow and cautious steps. The work of these drivers is much harder than that of the wood-cutters. They earn nearly twice as much, and it is the difficulty of getting enough men for this work that keeps down production.