Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-06-05
ACROSS THE ANDES IN PALACE CARS
The Railroad TO lie Finished ~
Three Gauges -Euormous "r""es

RA46
IT,. ts,iiroad to lie Finished In 1879
Three Gauges Enormous Grades
The wear 1892 win probably be signal'
tied in South America by most ll'ei
estinc event in civil engineering anu III
international overland commerce. inns
will be nothing less than the complexion
and opening of another railroad iliie from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. and the hrst
across the continent of South America.
II ia nineteen years since this work was
hec,,n and It's now confidently expected
that it will be finished 10y the beginning
of 1909 The road is to run from Buenos
Avres to Valparaiso, distance OF Oh
miles. There are now o4o nlies Oh II
finished at the Buenos Ayres end ana
eiphty-two at the Valparaiso end. vi the
remaining 149 miles about one-thlru Is
practically complete, the rails being iald,
The passage of the Andes is accomplished
at the Cumbre pass, which Is l3,olo leet
above sea level. The railroad, however
does not reach the summit OF the pass
but pierces the mountains by means OF
a tunnel more than three miles long, al
an elevation of 0450 feet above the sea
This makes it one of the highest, If not
the hirhest. railroad in the world. There
is nothing in Europe to compare with II,
The St. Gothard railroad is 3,78S feet
high, and that on the Rigi only attalhs
an elevation of 5,753 feet. The grades
are. of course, very steep. For con
siderable distance the rise is more than
422 feet to the mile, or one foot In every
twelve and half On this portion OF the
line a rackrail is employed similar to
those on the Hartz and other mountain
roads.
One unfortunate feature of the road,
which will seriously impair its value, is
the diversity of gauges adopted. The
different sections of the road have been
built by different companies, and each
company has its own gauge Thus there
are $40 miles from Buenos Ayres to Men
doza of feet inches gauge, the eighty
| two miles from Valparaiso to Santa Rosa
are feet 81 inches gauge, and the re-
naming l49 miles from Mendoza to
Santa Rosa are being laid in the narrow
| gauge of one metre. Thus, even when
the road is finished, it will not be possible
/ to run a train through from end to end.
! The seriousness of the defect is now ap-
preciated, however, and it is probable
that steps will be taken to make the
gauge uniform
The opening of the transandean rail
road will do away with great deal Of
the navigation around Cape Horn, which
has been the only means of commerce
between the east and west coasts of South
America. 1t will also, of course, prove
of enormous benefit in other ways to boil
Chill and the River Plate countries
Especially it will give the coal and cop
per and other products of the mines O
Chill splendid market in the Argentine
Republic: and it will allow the produces
of the fertile farms in the latter country
to have better access to the poorly sup
piled markets of the Pacific coast. An(
the productiveness of the land in the val
lev of the River Plate seems to have NJ
limit. The soil greatly resembles that o
the richest wheat districts of South Da
kota, and in places that of the Nile delta
There are hundreds of miles of the rich
est black loan, fifteen or twenty fee
deep. There are thousands of acre
around Montevideo and Buenos Ayre
that have been under constant cultiva
ton for 200 years; in all that time no al
tificial fertilizer has been applied to tn
soil, yet there is no perceptible failing i
, its crop producing powers. There ar
nearly a thousand million acres of sue
land
The climate too, is most favorable
There is scarcely a week in the year i
which outdoor work cannot be done o
the farms. Billiards are unknown, an
even the bitter cold OF the middle Al
lantc states is not experienced here.
= summer the heat is great, but does nc
: surpass that of New England. The onl
j defects of the climate are the irregular
ties of the rainfall There are somt
S times droughts and sometimes flood
! But this evil is being steadily overcom
5 by systems of irrigation and by whole
t sale tree planting on the open plains.
e The Chilians have properly been nicl
: named the Yankees of South America
a They do, indeed, exhibit the characte
lStlC AlkHe tIlIlAL anu tIIlGIp PRISE. D(
e the Argentine Republic has of late yea
r also become much like the United State
. especially the western states. The emo
! nous immigration, amounting to hun
= dreds of thousands annually, gives II
S people the same cosmopolitan characte
5 The vast plains, devoted to wheat grow
b ing and to cattle raising, remind OF
$ greatly of the prairies and plains of tt
i United States. The opening of dire
l railroad commerce between the east al
It west coasts will effect a practical con
!. mercial and Industrial union betwee
o the nations. Chilli will be the New En-
: land of South America, the mining az
d manufacturing region, while the Riy
Plate country will correspond to Il
Mississippi valley as the great agricu
tural country of this continent. Co
g New York Tribune.
r A Carload of Cinnamon.
g A telegram received here today fro
"a San Antonio Tpx saws. Tho Gau+ba,