Salto is the neighbouring province to the north upon the River Uruguay. It contains an area of 12,500 square kilometres and a population of rather over fifty thousand. Its chief town is Salto, that in actual size is said to exceed that of Paysandú, numbering as it does rather over twenty-two thousand inhabitants. The department is served by railway. The principal industry is that of pasture. The department, moreover, is one of the chief wine-producing centres of the Republic. Salto is rich in minerals, and quartz and precious stones are met with in fair quantities here. Artigas is the northernmost province on the Uruguay as well as in the Republic. Its area is 11,300 square kilometres, its population thirty thousand. Its capital is San Eugenio, situated on the Brazilian frontier, a town of nine thousand inhabitants. The railway runs as far as this point, and thus serves the length of the province. Artigas contains many districts notable for minerals, and is well endowed with precious stones such as the amethyst and topaz. Owing to the northern situation of the department grazing and agriculture are carried on to a lesser extent than in the majority of others. The variety of timber is important here, hard woods being found as well as the softer varieties. Tacuarembó is situated in the northern centre of the Republic. That is to say, its frontiers extend from the centre to within a comparatively short distance of the Brazilian frontier. The department is the largest in Uruguay, its territories extending over more than twenty-one thousand square kilometres. Its population, however, does not exceed fifty thousand, and it is thus the most sparsely inhabited department of the country. It is served by a railway. The principal town is San Fructuoso, which possesses eight thousand inhabitants. Tacuarembó is for the most part devoted to agriculture. Tobacco flourishes in the province, and recent experimental rice plantations have met with a fair amount of success. Gold and manganese are met with in various districts. Rivera is bounded on the south by Tacuarembó and on the north by Brazil. It is a fairly extensive department containing comparatively few inhabitants, but the precise figures of neither the one nor the other seem available. The chief town of the department is Rivera, a city situated on the Brazilian frontier that has a population of ten thousand. The industries of Rivera are similar to those of Tacuarembó. The gold mines here are of considerable importance, and are in active working. The department is served by railway, Rivera being the northernmost Uruguayan point of the line from Montevideo.