afterwards they built the line from Rosario to Cordova, which is
embodied to-day in the Central Argentine Railway. Other railways were
projected, and this policy of progress and extension of the steel road
still holds good in Argentina.

The year 1857 saw the first railway built, from Buenos Ayres to Flores,
5,879 kilometres long; in 1870 there were 457 miles of railroad; in 1880
the railways had increased their mileage to 1,572; in 1890 Argentina
possessed 5,895 miles of railway, and in 1900 there were 10,352 miles.

The rapid increase in railway mileage during the last nine years is as
follows:--

In 1901 there were 10,565 miles of railway.
" 1902 " " 10,868 " " "
" 1903 " " 11,500 " " "
" 1904 " " 12,140 " " "
" 1905 " " 12,370 " " "
" 1906 " " 12,850 " " "
" 1907 " " 13,829 " " "
" 1908 " " 14,825 " " "
" 1909 " " 15,937[A]" " "

12,000 of which are owned by English companies, representing a capital
investment of £170,000,000.

In other words, for the last forty years Argentina has built railways
at the rate of over a mile a day, and in 1907, 1908, and 1909 her
average rate per day was nearly three miles. This means that owing to
the extension of railways during this last year alone, over a million