Colonia is the richest and most important department of all in the Republic. Lying to the west of San José, it has the advantage not only of railways but of a lengthy coast-line on the River Plate. Agriculture here has attained to a high pitch of development, and dairy-farming constitutes one of the most important industries of the department. Fruit culture and viticulture are in an equally advanced condition, while the quarrying of building stone is now being energetically carried on. In Colonia is situated the Swiss Colony, the inhabitants of which apply themselves to agriculture and dairy-farming. Soriano lies to the north of Colonia, and its western boundary is likewise washed by the waters of the river--no longer the River Plate, but the Uruguay. The area of the department is 9,223 kilometres, and its population rather exceeds forty thousand. Soriano is connected by railway with Montevideo. Its chief town is Mercedes, the population of which amounts to ten thousand inhabitants. The principal industry is pasture, although agriculture and general fruit-growing is carried on to a certain extent. Timber, charcoal-burning, and stone-quarrying are responsible for a certain amount of labour. A fair quantity of minerals such as iron, silver, copper, and lead is met with here. Rio Negro is situated on the Uruguay River to the north of Colonia. Its area is 8,470 kilometres and its population twenty thousand. The department is now in the act of being linked up with the main centres by railway. Its capital is Fray Bentos, a town celebrated as one of the chief centres of the manufacture of meat extract, with a population of seven thousand inhabitants. Rio Negro is essentially a pastoral province, and is the chief centre in the Republic for the breeding of live stock, which attains here to an exceptionally high grade of quality. Rio Negro is one of the most favourably situated departments as regards water communication. In addition to its 120 kilometres of coast-line on the Uruguay it possesses 200 kilometres of river frontage on the River Negro. Paysandú bounds Rio Negro to the north, with a lengthy frontage on the Uruguay River. Its population is forty thousand, of which twenty-one thousand inhabit the capital, Paysandú, the second town of importance in Uruguay. The area of the department is about 14,000 square kilometres. Paysandú is connected by railway both with the capital and the northern centres. Its industries are chiefly pastoral and agricultural, and a number of meat-curing establishments exist.