But it is not in anticipation of such developments as these that the railways have been built. The ordinary products of the countries in question are more than sufficient to demand their existence. The possibility of greater mineral fields than are at present suspected is merely a side issue in the general scheme. The influence of steam transport, however, upon many of the silver-mines cannot fail to be marked, since the utter want of transport facilities now renders imperative an astonishing number of mines of this kind the productive power of which is very great indeed. The Uruguayan railways form no exception to the prevailing South American rule. The three companies in existence in that Republic are all British, and the standard of each is as high as that of the others in the remaining republics. Although the enterprises naturally enjoy lesser advantages in the way of skilled labour and technical conveniences than those here at home, there can be no doubt that the degree of comfort enjoyed by the traveller on a Uruguayan line compares very favourably with that experienced on an average British railway. The service and observation of punctuality are both to be commended, while the dining and sleeping cars are not only admirable of their type, but extremely well adapted to the needs of the country. The natural facilities that the Uruguayan country offers for railways differ considerably from those of the Argentine. In the central provinces of the latter many hundreds of miles may be travelled without any gradient whatever becoming apparent. The absence of streams here, moreover, obviates almost entirely the necessity for bridge building. It has already been explained that the characteristics of the Uruguayan Campo are entirely different. Although it possesses few hills of any really imposing height, its stretches of dead level ground are equally rare. Thus, although the gradients may be gentle and sufficiently easy, they are almost continuous. In some places, moreover, the rise and fall of the line is necessarily accentuated, and even abrupt--at all events, compared with the neighbouring areas.