coast to coast between Salina Cruz and Puerto Mexico. The only isolated system is the United Railroads of Yucatán, and a line is projected which will join this with the other railways of the country.,

Mexico has a carefully worked out body of railway law, and the Minister of Communications is assisted by a standing advisory Railway Commission of nine members.

CENTRAL AMERICA.- In Central America through connections from ocean to ocean are afforded in three countries, Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala (considering Panama a part of Central America). On these and other Central American lines the traveler will find some of the finest scenery attending railway travel anywhere in North and South America. Both freight and passenger rates are high, but the service in general is good. The oldest and best-known line, the Panama Railway, has been carrying immense amounts of traffic across the isthmus since it was opened in 1855, and its earnings have been very large. It is 47 miles long, and the trip between the Atlantic and Pacific terminals is made in about one and onequarter hours. From Port Limón, in Costa Rica, the three and one-half foot gauge Costa Rica Railway (leased by the Northern Railway of Costa Rica) carries the tourist through wild and beautiful country to the capital, San José, in some five or six hours, a daily service being maintained in both directions. The fare is

$3.90 gold. Over another line the traveler may also reach the Pacific Coast at Puntarenas, 69 miles from San José, in about the same time. The freight traffic of these Costa Rican railways is very largely made up of bananas and coffee shipped by the United Fruit Company. A system that promises much for the future development of Central America is that of the International Railways of Central America. This now includes the lines joined to make the ocean-to-ocean route from Puerto Barrios, on the Atlantic, to San José on the Pacific, together with a branch at Santa Maria and a line running westward from La Union, Salvador. When projected roads are completed the International Railways will have continuous track from the Mexican border to Panama, which will complete the North American part of the PanAmerican Railway.

The railway mileage of the countries of Central America is as follows: Panama, 202 miles; Costa Rica, 450 miles; Nicaragua, 200 miles; Salvador, 184 miles; Honduras, 300 miles; Guatemala, 500 miles.*

Ocean Transportation. The fact that a large part of the foreign trade of South America has been with Europe has caused a great development of ocean transportation service between the two continents. Until a few years before the World War the only regular communication of any importance between South America and the outside world was over the lines of ships that ran to European ports. It was customary for passengers bound for South America from the United States to go by way of Liverpool or Hamburg, and a great deal of freight was also routed via these ports. While this has decidedly changed and the United

*These figures, which are approximate only, are taken from Railway Expansion in Latin America' by Frederic M. Halsey.

States enjoys reasonably good freight service with South America, it is nevertheless true that in normal times transportation facilities to and from Europe are immensely better than to and from the United States. This is due in large part to the nature of the resources and commerce of Europe, South America and the United States. South America is distinctly a continent of raw materials, while Europe is a producer of manufactured articles and has been, moreover, an investor of immense amounts of capital. A heavy volume of oversea traffic and a consequent growth of shipping was, therefore, very logical. The United States, on the other hand, has until recent years supplied itself with most of its foodstuffs and other raw materials and has also not actively sought foreign markets for its factory products. Direct transportation facilities to South America, therefore, have been in demand only in a comparatively few years and the freight and passenger traffic, even after direct service was well established, has been carried almost wholly in foreign bottoms. Before the beginning of the European War a triangular trade route had been evolved by which vessels carried manufactured goods from Europe to South America, coffee, hides and a few other staples from South America to the United States and various American exports to Europe. The radical changes resulting from the war, together with the steadily increasing interest of the United States in South American trade, will undoubtedly cause the establishment of more ample direct facilities between North and South America, which in time will rival the facilities heretofore enjoyed by European countries.

After the outbreak of the World War in 1914 shipping service to South America was of course anything but normal, The price of charters advanced as much as 1,000 per cent, and ships were often not to be had at any price that would justify the dispatch of cargo. Any description of shipping conditions during the war would give little indication of the ordinary state of ocean transportation. The following account will, therefore, be confined to a review of the service offered immediately before the beginning of the war, although most of the lines mentioned have maintained a more or less interrupted service during its continuance.

European shipping, carrying mostly foodstuffs, hides and skins, and similar commodities to Europe, has been much more in evidence in the ports of Brazil and the river Plata than on the west and north coasts and scores of vessels, some of them registering as high as 20,000 tons, have come and gone at all seasons of the year. The port of Buenos Aires saw its business grow so rapidly that elaborate construction of docks was hardly sufficient by the time it was completed to take care of the growing traffic. In 1913 a total of 700 passengercarrying vessels entered the port from overseas, bringing 316,000 passengers. Many of the large liners that reached Buenos Aires put in also at Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo, and these also were busy ports. Liners flying the flags of European countries, together with the ships of one Brazilian line, afforded most of the regular communication between the east coast and New York, and the American flag, carried only by an occasional sailing vessel or

tank steamer or the monthly vessels of one American line to Brazil, was counted a rarity along the east coast.

England has enjoyed the bulk of South American trade and English lines have been more numerous than any other. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was perhaps the most prominent of these. It maintained a weekly service, its modern steamers of 15,000 tons and more making the voyage from Liverpool to Buenos Aires in 18 days regularly, and on occasion covering the distance from Cadiz, Spain, to Rio de Janeiro in 11 days. The Lamport and Holt Line had passenger and freight steamers running to the river Plata both from New York and from English ports, and steamers of the Booth Line plied regularly between England and North Brazil and Amazon ports, and between New York and these ports. Other lines offering service between the east coast of South America and England were the Harrison Line, the Houston Line, the London and Northern Steamship Company, Ltd., the Blue Star Line, the British and Argentine Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., the Nautilus Steam Shipping Company, Ltd., the Nelson Line, the Prince Line and a line operated by the New Zealand Shipping Company, Ltd., and Shaw, Savill and Albim Company, Ltd. All these sent their ships to the river Plata, and the Royal Mail, in addition, had regular boats to Venezuela and to Panama, offering service, through transshipment, to the west coast. Direct service to the west coast was maintained by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, a subsidiary of the Royal Mail. The fastest of the river Plata steamers made Lisbon in about 14 days and Southampton in 17 days from Buenos Aires, and the first-class fare ranged from $110 to $160.

Next to the English the ships of the Italian lines were most numerous in traffic to the east coast. This was due to the large movement of Italian immigrants into Argentina and Brazil, many of them going over for the harvests and returning to Italy to spend the rest of the year at home. Those who settled permanently brought their tastes with them and the demand for Italian articles built up a trade of considerable proportions. The following lines maintained a service consisting mostly of monthly sailings each way between Italian ports, usually Genoa and Naples, and the river Plata: Italia Line, La Veloce, Italian Lloyd, Lloyd del Pacifico, Lloyd Sabaudo, Navigazione Generale Italiana, Ligure Braziliana and SiculaAmericana. The German flag was carried by the large vessels of the Hamburg-South American and the North German Lloyd to Brazilian and Argentine ports, and by the Roland Line to west coast ports. The first-named line maintained a weekly service to European ports, including Lisbon, Vigo, Southampton, Boulogne and Hamburg, calling at Rio de Janeiro on the way and covering the distance between the river Plata and Lisbon in about 16 days. The first-class passenger fare to Europe was about $160. Regular liners were also to be seen in the river Plata in weekly, fortnightly or monthly service from France, Denmark, Holland, Spain, Belgium and Sweden, and even the interior countries of Russia and AustriaHungary found it desirable to maintain a regular service through their own national lines.

Besides the regular boats there were a large number of tramp steamers and sailers and specially chartered boats plying between Europe and the river Plata, for the most part carrying grain and livestock products from Buenos Aires, Rosario, San Lorenzo (near Rosario) and Bahía Blanca, and bringing back coal and miscellaneous cargo.

Between the United States and the river Plata six steamship lines, all British, offered freight service and one or two of these also carried passengers. These were the Lamport and Holt (the only important passenger-carrying line), Barber, Norton, Houston, Prince and American-Rio Plata lines. They maintained a fortnightly or monthly service from New York, stopping at Brazilian ports in one or both directions. The United States and Brazil Line, flying the American flag, was established primarily to carry the products of the United States Steel Products Company to Brazil and bring back manganese for steel manufacture, but it also offered general cargo service. The Booth Line had sailings from New York to Para, Manaos and Iquitos, and also on occasion to ports on the north coast of Brazil, and the Brazilian line, the Lloyd Brazileiro, operated between New York and all the important Brazilian ports.

The west coast enjoyed adequate ocean transportation facilities, both to oversea countries and between the various coast ports. The regular European lines included the Kosmos and Roland lines, flying the German flag, the three English companies, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, Gulf Line and Lamport and Holt, and the Johnson Line, maintaining service to Denmark and Norway. To the United States ships of three lines sailed regularly from west coast ports- the Merchants, West Coast and New York and South America lines, each with sailings varying from one to two months apart. These lines made the trip around the Horn until the opening of the canal, but now go by way of Panama. Between Japan and the Pacific Coast the large ships of one line, the Toyo Kisen Kaisha, provided regular and adequate service. In the coasting trade between the ports of Chile, Peru and Ecuador three companies maintained regular schedules, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the Compania Sud Americana de Vapores (Chilean) and the Compania Peruana de Vapores y Dique del Callao (Peruvian Steamship and Drydock Company of Callao). Ships of the Kosmos Line and others sailing to transoceanic ports also made stops at the important ports of the west coast and carried more or less coasting traffic. Besides these regular sailings there were a large number of tramp steamers and sailing vessels taking nitrate from Chile to Europe and the United States or bringing coal from Australia and Wales.

The flags of more than half-a-dozen countries were carried on the ships of the regular lines that served the ports of the north coast. Spain was represented by the Compagnia Transatlantica de Barcelona, Italy by La Veloce, France by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, Holland by the Royal Dutch West India Mail, Germany by the Hamburg American, England by the Harrison and Leyland lines, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company

and the United Fruit Company (British vessels sailing from United States ports), and the United States by the "Red D» Line. The ships of most of these lines touched at ports of both Venezuela and Colombia, usually, however, going in one direction, New Orleans or New York being visited either before or after the Caribbean ports on the round trip from Europe. The United Fruit Company had sailings only to Colombia, and the Red D Line and the Royal Dutch West India Mail visited only Venezuela.

In Venezuela, La Guaira and Puerto Cabello were the chief ports of call, the cargo to and from Maracaibo, the important coffee district, being transshipped at Curacao, and a good part of the trade of Ciudad Bolívar and the Orinoco being handled through Trinidad. In Colombia either Cartagena or Puerto Colombia, the port for Barranquilla, was visited by the liners serving the country, and in addition the port of Santa Marta became prominent because of heavy shipments of bananas. Barranquilla, the most important commercial city of the Colombian Republic, is shut off from the ocean by a great bar at the mouth of the Magdalena, which permits the entry of boats of lighter draft only. Various projects have been discussed and contracts have even been let for dredging and maintaining a channel through this bar, but this has not been accomplished so far and cargo must come and go through Puerto Colombia.

The various lines carrying the commerce of the United States with South America may be said to have furnished a fairly adequate service, and in the main their ships were ready to carry all the cargo that offered. There has been considerable agitation in recent years for the establishment of American steamship lines to carry freight and passenger traffic between the United States and Latin America, but this has arisen from a desire for many advantages derived from a national service rather than from a conspicuous inadequacy of cargo space. Nevertheless there is little question that Americanowned vessels would do much to assist in the upbuilding of United States trade with Latin America. American lines could expand their service with the increasing demands from American shippers, and could adopt policies that would directly encourage a steady trade increase. A faster schedule with more frequent sailings of passenger vessels to Brazil and the river Plata would help to bring shipping communications from New York to a par with those from Liverpool, Hamburg and Genoa. A constant community of interest between American industries and the companies which transported their products to Latin America would work for as great an expansion of both trade and shipping as could reasonably be expected under normal conditions of competition. It is probable that with the growth of interest in foreign trade in the United States the establishment of American-owned lines to all parts of Latin America will be a question of only a short time.

The time now required for the voyage from New York to Buenos Aires is 24 or 25 days, to Rio de Janeiro 17 days, to Colón 7 days, to Cartagena 8 or 9 days, to La Guaira 8 to 10 days, to Guayaquil, Ecuador, 12 to 14 days, to

Callao, Peru, about 15 days and to Valparaiso, Chile, about 22 days. The West Coast and the Merchants lines offer through service to the west coast, and the United Fruit Company and the Panama Railroad and Steamship lines connect with the boats of the Peruvian and Chilean lines and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. Vessels plying to east coast ports from New York make no stops in the West Indies, as a rule, except at Barbados, and occasionally Trinidad, and travelers in Venezuela or Colombia who wish to visit Brazil and Argentina often find it more desirable to return to New York than to wait for connections. Pernambuco is the first port of call for the regular liners on the way down the east coast, except those of the Lloyd Brazileiro, and Pará and neighboring ports are reached from Pernambuco by coasting vessels.

River Transportation.- Transportation by river in South America has had the importance which it always has in a new and unexplored continent, and it will continue to be perhaps the chief factor in the development of the interior regions, particularly the Amazon Valley, for an indefinite time to come. Where railways are built they form of course the principal means of carrying traffic, and a steady expansion in railway construction is to be expected. But such construction is attended with great difficulties in the vast tropical regions of the northern and central sections as well as in the mountainous regions of the west coast, and the cost is very heavy. The rivers will, therefore, remain the recognized outlets for these tropical regions until the growth of population makes it feasible and desirable to provide what is now dense forest land with networks of railways.

There are four great river systems in South America on which vessels ranging in size from the small canoe of the Indian to the great ocean liners carry manufactured goods to the interior and bring out rubber, hides and a dozen other tropical products. These are the systems of the Amazon, the river Plata, the Orinoco and the Magdalena. So extensive are these systems that with a comparatively few miles portage one can go by boat except for rapids from Buenos Aires to the mouth of the Orinoco. The great Amazon, of course, leads in the extent of navigable waterways and ocean liners go regularly as far as Manaós and even Iquitos, almost to the boundary of Ecuador. The Parana and its tributaries, the Paraguay and the Pilcomayo, stretch far into the heart of the continent and afford an outlet for the interior plains of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. In the north the Orinoco is as yet little utilized because the country it serves is but thinly settled, but the grassy plains through which it flows will support millions more cattle than they do, and until railways are built to the coast their only outlet will be by way of the river. In Colombia the Magdalena forms the only highway by which freight and passengers move from the interior of the country to the Atlantic Coast and vice-versa.

Navigation on the Amazon, in many respects the most remarkable river highway in the world, is carried on by ocean liners, particularly the boats of the Booth Line and the Lloyd Brazileiro, by a number of river companies and by a

host of larger or smaller vessels not grouped into companies. The principal river company is the Companhia Navegação do Amazonas, a Brazilian company, which owns some 50 or 60 vessels. The principal port is that of Manaós, about 1,000 miles from Pará, on the Rio Negro near the place where it empties into the Amazon. On the Madeira there is continuous navigation to the beginning of the rapids at Santo Antonio, and beyond these series of rapids, which are spanned by the Madeira-Mamore Railway, boats of light draft can run almost to the foot of the mountains. On the Amazon itself the line of navigable water for largedraft boats passes the frontier of Peru and continues on to Iquitos, and much farther for those of smaller size. Another highly important river in Brazilian transportation is the São Francisco, which rises in the state of Minas Geraes and flows north for more. than a thousand miles before turning east and south to the Atlantic. Rapids and falls prohibit through navigation, but there is a stretch of about 800 miles between Pirapora and Sobradinho over which boats of considerable size can operate.

The Uruguay River does not offer much in the way of transportation facilities, as rapids at Salto_stop_the boats going up from Buenos Aires. The Paraguay, however, is open as far as the draft of vessels will permit them to go, and steamers of the Lloyd Brazileiro call regularly at Corumba on the Bolivia-Brazil frontier. These boats and also those of the Mihanovitch Line (Argentine Navigation Company, Ltd.) offer a river service to Asunción, Paraguay, the trip up the river from Buenos Aires taking about five days and that downriver about four. This company, which has a fleet of some 300 vessels, does an extensive coasting business to Argentine ports and maintains a daily express service between Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

On the Orinoco, as noted, traffic is light because of the fact that the plains through which the river flows are as yet but sparsely inhabited. There is considerable difference in the level of the river in the rainy and the dry seasons and when the floods come it overflows its banks and its width increases to several miles. The principal city, Ciudad Bolívar, is reached by vessels engaged in ocean trade, and the river is navigable for large boats during high water as far as San Antonio. In western Venezuela the large expanse of lake Maracaibo affords a highway over which the important coffee production of the interior reaches the outside world, but a bar at the entrance keeps out all but light-draft boats.

The Magdalena River, in Colombia, may be said to be the life-line of the country's commerce. Practically all imports destined for the interior are carried over it. Although it is silted up at the mouth so that ocean liners cannot pass through, cargo is discharged at Cartagena and Puerto Colombia and is taken thence by rail to the river ports of Calamar and Barranquilla. It is then loaded on river boats (which also carry passengers) and carried up the Magdalena to the various river ports, from which it is taken inland by muleback or rail. If destined for the capital, Bogotá, it must be transferred to railway trains at Honda or La Dorado and then reloaded on river boats at Beltran, after having encompassed a series of rap

ids in the river. It then goes by river to Girardot, 93 miles, and finally arrives at Bogotá after another journey by rail, during which it must be transshipped from a medium-gauge to a narrow-gauge railway. From the time it arrives in port, therefore, until it reaches Bogotá the cargo is transshipped six times. The whole trip up-river to Bogotá takes 8 to 10 days, but the down trip can be made in less time during periods of high water. The Cauca River, the principal tributary of the Magdalena, is navigable over part of its length, but rapids and falls prevent the river boats from running through to the Magdalena. Railway construction may in time provide a quicker and more convenient outlet for the country's products, but this is not likely to be accomplished for many years.

MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA.

Central America has owed much of its ocean-transportation service to the development of its banana industry, as this has brought about the establishment of the steamship lines of the United Fruit Company. The vessels of this company have provided the east coast of Central America with a service to United States ports more frequent and regular than is enjoyed by any other section of Latin America. Large ships carrying as a rule both passengers and freight sail regularly between the United States and Central America, as well as Colombia and Cuba, giving direct connections between these countries and five United States ports. From New York there are two sailings each week for Panama (one of these boats also making Port Limon, Costa Rica), and one sailing every two weeks for British Honduras, Guatemala and Spanish Honduras. From Boston there is a weekly boat to Port Limon, stopping at Havana, Cuba, on the way. From New Orleans there is a boat each week to British and Spanish Honduras and Guatemala and another to Panama and Costa Rica, while a third sails for Panama by way of Havana. Service is also offered from Galveston and Mobile, though no passengers are carried, as they are on all the other routes. These boats, carrying millions of bunches of bananas from Central American ports every year, as well as cacao and other produce, afford an adequate and valued service of immense importance to the prosperity of Central American countries, all of which are reached directly except Salvador and Nicaragua.

Besides the United Fruit Company lines serving the east coast from the United States are the Bluefields Fruit and Steamship Company, operating between Bluefields and New Orleans, affording the only regular steamship communication of eastern Nicaragua with the outside world; the Orr-Laubenheimer Line, the vessels of which operate between Mobile and ports of British Honduras and Guatemala; the Hubbard-Zemurray Line running fruit steamers from Mobile to Puerto Cortes, Ceiba and Tela. Honduras; and the Independent Steamship Line, with sailings twice a week for Ceiba, Honduras.

Before the war the Hamburg American Line (Atlas Service) had weekly sailings between New York and Port Limon, and also a semi-monthly service from Port Limon to Hamburg. The Elders and Fyffes Line formerly