Chapter 5 Appendix 8

The opening of the Neuquen route of the FCS; translated from Chapter 2 of Arturo Coleman's book.

Chapter II

THE CONSTRUCTION AND OPENING OF THE RAILWAY FROM BAHIA BLANCA TO NEUQUEN, AND ITS EFFECTS

Perhaps in my long life as a railwayman, I have not been involved in a work of such vital importance for the Argentine, as I was with the railway line from Bahía Blanca to the [river] Neuquén, built in an incredibly short time, in the middle of a desert, when nothing could make one imagine that, in such a short time, such a radical change in this extensive and rich part of the Republic would result.

It is no secret to anyone, that the line to the Neuquén, before it was of utilitarian use, was purely strategic and, in fact, preventative and pacifying. The rails to Neuquén contributed to the consolidation of years of peace for the Argentine, demonstrating, in a visible way, that there was no sacrifice, nor enterprise, which could have brought it about, if the prodigious sentiments of patriotism, intelligence, capital and work were not combined.

With the same heading as this chapter, inspiring my work as a railwayman, I spoke to a conference, at the request of the Asociación Bahiense de Cultura Inglesa [The English Cultural Association of Bahía Blanca?] on 1 August 1944. On re-reading it, I find little to change in what I had prepared then. I reproduce that text, because I understand that in it is condensed a most interesting chapter in the development of the Southern Railway which itself constitutes a page in its own right of Argentine history.

Brief Summary of a Frontier Conflict

Here is a bit of history. The sword of Damocles, of a possible war between Chile and Argentina, was about to fall on the heads of both countries throughout half a century, compromising their political and economic futures. [End of page 155]

Chile‘s occupation of a portion of Magallanes territory in 1843, signalled the start of the frontier dispute with that Republic. Four years later, the diplomatic debate started with the protest formulated by the Argentine Government and renewed successively and alternately, when internal and external political circumstances permitted, and resulted in various treaties, among them those of 1856 and 1881.

When the time came to draw the line of the agreed frontier on the ground, following the appointment of the experts stipulated in the convention of 1888, a question arose which required altering the treaty line which had been defined as the water-shed of the Andes. Since then, a divergence of opinion in respect of the rules of procedure to be followed in the demarcation was noted among the experts. This intense divergence of opinions caused the works projected for the summer season of 1892-93 to be abandoned.

In Chilean newspapers the clamours increased, day on day. War was spoken about impertinently. In 1894, Chile ordered a formidable military preparation, sending General Korner to Europe to buy armaments and engage German officers, and authorized the construction of a second fleet. The season of 1894-95 then had to be fruitless. The Chilean and Argentine commissions could not understand each other.

International questions had been almost always settled in the Argentine Republic by means of conceding lands which it owned, with a prodigality which considered its rich inheritance as inexhaustible. Chile, on the other hand, had advanced its frontiers over its neighbours, so that eventually the poor one became the richest, by means of joining all that the others gave, whether high quality or poor.

It has been said that two rival ancient noble houses had engraved on their heraldic shields symbolic mottoes. "Twist and don‘t double," said one, "Double and don‘t twist," said the other. The first could well be appropriate to the Argentine shield.

In these years, Chile furtively sent numerous commissions of officers into the interior of our territory, charged with studying the topography of the Argentine frontier regions, not from the point of view of its geography, but that of the military. The cries increased with repercussions in Europe. Bankers suspended business with us; immigration was paralysed; business within the country was checked; capital became nervous, and public opinion suffered the terror of the spectre of war.

Just then, the National Government started to act, and the first measure which it took was to promote the construction of a strategic railway to enable an army, in case of war, to be deployed in the direction of the Andes. [End of page 156]

In mid 1895, His Excellency, the Minister of the Interior, Dr Benjamín Zorilla, expressed the view to the Chairman of the Local Board of the Southern Railway, that the Government had the intention of procuring the construction of a railway to the Neuquén and that they believed that the Southern Railway Company was the best way to achieve this.

The Chairman of the Local Board replied to the minister that, some time ago, a survey of the route had been carried out, and that the information acquired by the company was not promising. It would be necessary for effective state help to be given, as the lands were lacking water and grazing, and the population was sparse over a very wide area.

The Minister of the Interior persisted in his idea, offering in recompense a grant of lands as a premium. This was not accepted, as the whole route of the projected line was wholly in private ownership. Its appropriation was not practicable; thus, after careful study of the matter, with the object of helping the Executive Power, the Minister of the Interior, Dr Amancio Alcorta, on the one hand, and Don Guillermo White, on behalf of the Southern Railway, on the other hand, signed a contract on 16 March 1896 for the urgent construction of the line. As soon as it was sanctioned by the chambers of Deputies and of Senators, the plans were presented. By a decree of 13 September 1897, the first section of 175 kilometres from Bahía Blanca to Río Colorado was opened. The second section, between Río Colorado and Choele Choel (today‘s Darwin station) was opened on 30 June 1898; the third, between Choele Choel and Chelforó, 56 kilometres on 31 December of the same year and, finally, on 30 May 1899 as far as the confluence with the Río Limay.

During the last years of the government of Dr José Evaristo Uriburu, the question of the frontiers with Chile became more serious. Tension in the relations with the neighbouring republic increased alarmingly. The imminence of open conflict lead the two governments to complete and organise their armed forces to meet any emergency.

The overexcitement of opinion, all the time growing, augured a most dangerous situation and carried the conviction that the solution to the dispute was fatally destined to be resolved by force of arms. This epoch, 1896, coincided with the introduction of compulsory military service, initiating the first conscription and the concentration of recruits in Curumalán. This involved me actively in the transport of troops, arms and provisions. [End of page 157]

The military preparations required immense expense. Boats and stores were acquired. The budgets for 1896 and for 1897 were in deficit by 52 million [pesos] and 40 million [pesos]. The external and internal debt grew. In 1897, as war was seen to be imminent, a national impress with bonds of $100, bearing 6% interest was initiated. $38,405,000 was raised [$ = peso, not dollar].

Any recklessness could set off the explosion. But serenity and reflection, which men who manage public business did not abandon, exorcised the danger which floated in the heated atmosphere generated by the intransigent and bellicose press. The enormous weight of responsibility lent weight to the side of peaceable solutions, making governments understand anew and select a course of action which, with efficacy, calmed the spirit.

The meeting, at which the experts presented their considered lines for the whole frontier, took place in August 1898, requiring the two governments to provide what was necessary for the studies not yet carried out. They were successful, and put them in a position to determine their general lines after the summer of 1897-98. Previously, by the protocol of 13 April 1896, agreement was reached that what was not agreed by the experts would be submitted to arbitration by His Britannic Majesty.

In October 1898, for the second time, Lieutenant General Julio Argentino Roca became president. He distinguished himself for his policy of a friendly approach and continental solidarity, starting with an historic meeting in the Straights of Magellan before the year‘s end. This was, at the same time, a first step, a point of departure, an angular base, a handful of seeds of civilization, of peace and of a happy future.

After the presidential meeting in Magallanes, the visit of the frigate Sarmiento to the Chilean ports, and then of the Chilean cruiser Zenteno to Buenos Aires, taking the Chilean delegates to the conference which defined the frontiers on the Puna, clearing the northern horizon and always, despite the great difficulties, made worse by the suffering and the great impatience of the people and by the death of the distinguished Chilean president, Errázuriz, who, in his own country, with a fraternal embrace in the Straits of Magellan, had forcefully lifted the white flag of a new policy, distinguished by great thinking of civilization and concord, which advances, prevails, grows roots, and flourishes, in a dark stormy climate, and at last produces its fruits in the pacts of May 1903, which ended the old differences between the two sovereign nations of the Andes.

The British arbitration decision of 20 November 1902 recognised Argentine rights in the South, but awarded 54,000 square kilometres in the Puna to Chile who came out advantageously. Nevertheless Argentina, in the honour of the peace, accepted the loss and good relations developed between the two countries. [End of page 158]

The experts who defined the frontiers were Dr Francisco P. Moreno for the Argentine and Don Diego Barros Arana, for Chile and, as the arbiter‘s representative, Sir Thomas Holdich.

The Opening Ceremonies

As I said before, the opening of the line from Bahía Blanca to Neuquén was a national achievement. It was opened by His Excellency the President of the Republic, Lieutenant General Julio A. Roca, on 1 June 1899. Among the retinue were General Luis María Campos, Minister of War; Commodore Martín Rivadavia, Minister of the Navy ; Dr Emilio Frers, Minister of Agriculture; Dr Emilio Civit, Minister of Public Works, the Honourable William A. C. Barrington, Her Britannic Majesty‘s special envoy and plenipotentiary minister; thirteen national senators, among whom was Lieutenant General Bartolomé Mitre; 61 national deputies; Dr Benjamín Paz, President of the National Supreme Court of Justice; Dr Octavio Bunge, Dr Abel Bazán and Dr Juan E. Torrent, members of the Supreme Court; Engineer Alfredo Demarchi, Vice Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires; Luis Luiggi, engineer responsible for the construction of Puerto Militar; General M. J. Campos; General Francisco B. Bosch and General José I. Garmendia; Mr Ernesto Tornquist, Mr Emilio Lamarca and many high functionaries, as also representatives of the various branches of commerce, banking, insurance companies, shipping firms, railways, journalists, etc making up a gathering of more than three hundred people.

In my role as Superintendent of the Plaza Constitución Section it was my responsibility to arrange the special trains. I travelled on the second one. Three long trains were provided, with every convenience imaginable for the well-being of the travellers. At midnight on 31 May 1899, the first of the trains, in which the President of the Republic travelled, left from El Puerto (nowadays Ingeniero White) station, the second left half an hour later and the last at 1.45 in the morning of 1 June. An exploratory engine preceded them. The rolling stock involved three tank wagons, six vans for provisions, twenty sleeping carriages, nine dining carriages, the presidential saloon, the Southern Railway‘s General Manager‘s saloon, three departmental coaches and a total of sixteen engines for the complete round trip.

The Impressive Flooding of the Río Negro

The trains reached Choele Choel (today‘s Darwin) at midday, but as communication with the stations in advance was cut-off, the President decided to continue the journey with great care, [End of page 159] given that we already knew that the Río Negro was flooding. On reaching Chimpay station, which was the next one, 36 kilometres further on from Choele Choel, the station yard was found to be covered in water from the enormous flood of the Río Negro and, as it was rising rapidly and threatening the embankment, it was decided to turn back from there once the third train arrived. The line was officially opening with the following speeches:

The Speech by Engineer Guillermo White.

"Most excellent President,

Gentlemen,

The Company of the Great Southern Railway have granted me the great honour of being their representative at the opening of the line to the Neuquén, whose construction has facilitated the means of covering, in hours, the great distances which separate us from Buenos Aires.

Do not forget, Gentlemen, that the distance, two years ago, could not be traversed in less than fifteen days, and this with all sorts of inconveniences and privations, not forgetting danger in all its forms, which the harsh, unsociable and short-of-water wilderness presents.

Meanwhile, I have crossed it today, without feeling its icy blasts, and without being frightened by its impressive loneliness. I have seen it thus, but as the hurricane is felt from the sheltered arm chair close to the fire.

Before this achievement of strength and human intelligence, I must at least record the phrase with which America greeted Europe on transmitting the first telegram across the Atlantic Ocean: [End of page 160]

‘Glory in Heaven to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will. ‘

Men of good will! This is precisely what this great work represents!

Men of other races and tongues, have not dared entrust us with their capital so that we might open up ways through the wilderness, carrying civilization and progress to the most remote areas of our immense territory.

And allow me, Gentlemen, may we remember the frequency with which the good will of the Government, of man and of English capital have been felt in our history.

England was the first nation to recognise our legitimate existence in front of the world; in London, the first enterprise under the historic government of Rivadavia was for the construction of the port of Buenos Aires. From this nation came the first agriculturalists and stock-rearers to this country and to them we owe the introduction of the first breeds of pedigree cattle, sheep and horses which transformed the primitive unproductive native breeds to the choice products which we send to their markets today.

Remember also that the vigorous action of David Robertson (later Lord Marjoribanks), who achieved the formation of this company in London in 1862 which, at once, constructed the railway from Buenos Aires to Chascomús, sprang from a group of English residents, so well sponsored by some Argentine gentlemen.

This group of men, of tenacious will and vigorous optimism and who are still around, Messrs Drabble and Fair, and the present Chairman, Mr Parrish, have never given up feeling affection and a special liking for this soil, making it obvious with long-lasting works.

And it is fair to say that this current of sympathy and English capital has not been limited to the railway undertakings; on the contrary, it is found protecting all human endeavours, from the most humble industry to the strongest banking institution.

Thanks to this same capital, I have no doubt, Gentlemen, that the lands which you have just crossed, and which this railway has joined to the port of Bahía Blanca, will be, in a not too distant future, the seat of villages and cities, and that these thirsty sterile lands will slake their thirst with the abundant waters of the [river] Colorado and the Río Negro, returning to man an hundred fold the fruit of his work, capital and intelligence. And I don‘t harbour doubts in this respect, precisely because I see the country dedicated to work, with a single noble aspiration in its government and people, the longing for peace. [End of page 161]

But, Gentlemen, for this peace to be truly fertile, it requires the most perfect equilibrium among the diverse elements which make up the nation. It needs its action developed under the shelter of just equitable laws which protect and stimulate work, and which are observed without odious exceptions on the part of public authorities, and without painful transgressions on the part of the people.

And, in furtherance of this aspiration towards the ideal, allow me, Mr President of the Republic, to remind you of that phrase of the celebrated English statesman, who attributed the greatness of his country to the faithful compliance with the law, good or bad, but observed without wavering.

I assert, Gentlemen, that because this railway was constructed strictly within the constraints of the law of contract which authorised it, it is the first step in the enlargement of these territories. The efforts of all men of good will, which have contributed with their work or capital to this great work, gather the merited fruit of their labour.

Now Gentlemen, I ask you to stand and accompany me in a toast, because our country is great and happy within the harmonious exercise of its institutions, and because everlasting peace reigns among our children and brothers.

Accompany me also in a toast for the President of the Republic, and with me wish him that, during every year of his government, the immortal month of May may be celebrated with achievements such as the present.

Mr President of the Republic: please hand over the Neuquén Railway to the civilized world. I conclude my speech."

President of the Republic’s Speech

The President of the Republic, Lieutenant general Julio A. Roca, replied as follows:

"Gentlemen:

It is today exactly twenty years since, at the head of a body of the army, I reached these banks of the Río Negro, to establish on them the military forces which we needed to take real and definitive possession of the Pampa and Patagonia, thus fulfilling a law of the Nation and satisfying an aspiration and necessity felt since the first days of the Spanish conquest.

The wilderness, in reality in those times, started in the vicinity of the village of Azul. Olavarría, Carhué, Puán y Bahía Blanca, were merely military forts, lost in the immense savannah of the Pampa, beneath whose protection, small groups of families barely lived with continuous worries and fears. [End of page 162]

To reach the confluence of the [river] Limay with the [river] Neuquén, the division under my direct orders took forty days of continuous marching, crossing territories of which we had hardly any notion, and which the popular imagination populated with innumerable war-like tribes and mysterious terrors.

Twenty years later, in this picturesque valley, where once we found fresh tracks of the fugitive indian, we greet the sun of May and raise up our tents alongside the great river with the immense satisfaction of having completed a successful campaign, enlarging the homeland‘s dominions and resolving for ever the age-old problem of the frontiers.

On completing today this new conquest, which is complementary to that one, allow me, Gentlemen, linking one enterprise with the other, to recall the memory of the expedition of ‘79, which reminds me on this memorable occasion of all my companions-in-arms. Many of them cannot associate themselves with this grand celebration of civilization, who prepared, nevertheless, when they advanced step by step, experiencing all types of privations and suffering, on the road in the wilderness so that the settler with his flocks and agricultural tools might peacefully use and work the land and the railway advance triumphantly to receive his products to carry them to the ports and consumers‘ markets.

On this great day, it is worth remembering the Argentine soldier who lived in a constant battle with the savage, and has been the pioneer of our progress in the immense space, closed by barbarism which colonization has left us as an inheritance.

Gentlemen: This railway which allows us to achieve in a few hours, conveniently and comfortably, the [End of page 163] undertaking of the journey which the divisions of the national army took, experiencing great difficulties, was born under the administration of Dr Uriburu, in difficult and dangerous times for the Republic, considering purely strategic objectives. Providence, or the good sense of the people, has wanted it to become a new bond of peace and friendship with Chile, because, instead of stopping there, it has later to go onto find the Pacific through the Andes.

In such circumstances, the Board of the Southern Railway, as if it had a clear vision of the future, without making strict calculations, without wavering for an instant, undertook the work, which the government required in name of national security. Not skimping on finance, nor time, nor effort, it laid the rails from Bahía Blanca to the Neuquén, with unprecedented speed. This it is a new and beautiful testimony of the benefits that the country owes to the capital and the enterprising genius of the English.

When recognizing it thus, we cannot forget that nucleus of energetic resolute men who established the Southern Railway Company, among whom you have named Messrs Drabble and Fair and its present Chairman, Mr. Parish, old and staunch friends of the Argentine Republic. I must also link your name, Mr. White, with that of those who, working for the good and the progress of the country, have earned your gratitude through their fine personal qualities.

The Southern Railway Company has developed with the national life. In 1865, little more than one hundred kilometres long and with a capital of £750,000, today is 3,500 kilometres long and has a capital of £21,000,000; a remarkable example of the progress of a great company and of the benefits which one finds here ?the capital in the hands of intelligent and practical businessmen.

With such help, the territories which we have just crossed will, without a doubt, in the not too distant future, as I have said, be seats of populations and new industries. Its irrigation is easy, taking advantage of the mighty rivers that the nature has put to its service.

Many years will not pass before this valley of the Río Negro, as the valley of the Nile, and provided with an equally amazing fertility, becomes an emporium of production and wealth.

We arrive happily at an era in which we can deliver all sorts of flattering perspectives. The Republic is on a par with all other nations. Order is fixed in its breast, and the desires of progress reveal themselves with extraordinary vigour, approaching the future with tranquillity and confidence.

Under these auspices, gentlemen, I am pleased to declare open the line from Bahía Blanca to the Neuquén."

Hardly had the President‘s speech been completed, than a hurried departure was made due to the advancing flood waters. [End of page 164]

An official banquet in the middle of the countryside

Two minutes after the last train had passed a culvert of five metres span near Chimpay, the embankment and the bridge collapsed under the force of the water. If this had happened while the trains had been to the west of it, they would have been trapped there for several weeks. After staying a short while at Choele Choel (nowadays Darwin), looking at the scene created by the flooding river, whose waters reached within a hundred metres of the station, the journey was continued to Fortín Uno, where the three trains were placed alongside each other on the sidings in order to hold the official banquet, which was to have been held in Fortín Roca, where all he preparations had been made in a building specially built for this purpose. The purvey arrangements were entrusted to the most expert firm in the Federal Capital.

As the night was cold, all the windows of the coaches were closed and the glass misted-up, which prevented what was happening in the other dining saloons from being seen or heard. After the banquet there were various speeches. At midnight the trains set off for El Puerto [station].

As I have said, the official banquet was to have been held at Roca, where the most complete preparations had been made. Waiters and everything necessary had come from Buenos Aires, except the champagne, cigars and the orchestra which came in our trains. The champagne and cigars had reached Buenos Aires in the French steamer Chile, which had been held up by quarantine which in turn delayed the departure of the trains from Buenos Aires for a few days so that they could take these elements to the site of the banquet. The carrying in our trains of the orchestra, the drinks and the cigars lead to the success of the banquet held in the dining carriages in Fortín Uno station, which never since has had a similar spectacle.

As has been seen, the construction of the line to the Neuquén was a result of the dispute with Chile over the frontiers and the Argentine Government‘s having started negotiations with the Southern Railway. These negotiations resulted in certain concessions, because there was absolutely no prospect of traffic due to the arid unpopulated nature of the country and the lack of rain.

The only immediate use which could be perceived was that, one day, it would be possible to construct a speedy route into Chile, given that the line was solidly made using materials of prime quality. [End of page 165]

The necessary investigations were made very quickly, leading to the line‘s being constructed rapidly. There were no records of previous flooding to guide the engineers in the provision of facilities to allow water to cross the line. Traces of flows resulting from heavy rains, years ago, in the upper desert, and leading to the Río Negro, were used to determine where water would cross the line. The flood which took place at the opening of the line, destroyed many kilometres of line, which had to be later rebuilt on higher ground.

Before there was the line from Bahía Blanca to Neuquén, it took seventy days to get war materials to the frontier, while with its construction this was reduced to six days, and now, with the rails extended to Zapala, not more than 48 hours. This circumstance probably induced the Chilean Government to accept arbitration. The dispute was referred to King Edward of England who appointed Colonel Holdich to undertake the necessary studies. These determined amicably the outstanding question, thus avoiding war, which at times had seemed inevitable.

After the opening ceremony was completed at Fortín Uno, the trains returned to El Puerto [station], where they spent the night.

Change of name of "El Puerto" to "Ingeniero White"

During that evening‘s dinner in the dining carriage of the presidential train, the President of the Republic in an impromptu speech in honour of Don Guillermo White, who was present, renamed the area of El Puerto as Ingeniero White and at the same time today‘s Puerto Belgrano naval base was changed from Puerto Militar. On his return to Buenos Aires he confirmed these new names by decree of 19 June 1899, which in its operative part decreed:

Article First – Substituting for the Southern Railway‘s station names of Punta Alta and Puerto, respectively Puerto Militar and Ingeniero White prior to the formalities required by the General Management of Ways of Communication. Article Second – Communicate, publicise and insert in the National Register. – Roca. – Emilio Civit.

During the dinner at the smart Ingeniero White station, the President of the Nation received news that a member of his family in Buenos Aires had taken ill and had asked for him to be there. Accordingly, His Excellency decided to start his journey back to the Federal Capital right away. He left at midnight on a special train with a number of members of his retinue. His Excellency personally oversaw the lighting of the engine‘s fire and its preparation. [End of page 166]

The following morning a train was made up of eight dining carriages and a saloon for the retinue who had stayed behind in order to visit Puerto Militar which was under construction under the direction of Engineer Luis Luiggi. To honour the visitors, the coastal batteries were fired, after which the return was made to Ingeniero White. After remarshalling the trains with their respective dining carriages, a start was made back to Buenos Aires via the Lamadrid line, reaching the capital the following day, having passed through a terrible wind and rain storm. With this exception, the whole of the rest of the journey had been undertaken in pleasant, if somewhat cool weather, given the time of the year.

Recalling the Past

The opening of Neuquén station, after the construction of the great bridge over the river of the same name in July 1902, altered the appearance of the territory enormously, given that recently [End of page 167] the products of the Cordillera and the Pre-Cordillera, which had previously enriched the Chileans, started to increase, and to be inclined more towards the Argentine markets. The new capital of the territory was established in Neuquén, having been moved from Chos Malal [End of pages 168 & 169] on 12 September 1904. The government of the Neuquén was created by a law of 18 October 1884, defining Campana Mahuida in December that same year as capital, which was transferred in 1888 to Chos Malal and finally to Neuquén.

Before passing to Chos Malal, the capital had been temporarily in Cordihué and Ñorquién. The first governor of the territory was Colonel Don Manuel José Olascoaga.

It is interesting to note that among the methods adopted by the Minister of the Interior, Dr. Joaquín V. González, to improve the administration of the national territories was the practice of visiting the various territories. Dr. Gabriel Carrasco, head of the second section of that ministry, undertook these visits.

Dealing with little known regions, full of unexploited natural riches, which form the reserves which this country offers to the world‘s civilizations, I consider it to be of some interest to quote some paragraphs of Dr Carrasco‘s formal report which he passed to the Minister in 1900, following an eventful and emotional visit to Neuquén territory. Dr Charrasco said:

"Thirty six hours by train were sufficient for me to reach the edge of the great and beautiful Neuquén river, where less than twenty years ago sat that powerful monarch of the Argentine pampas, who is now dethroned and consoles himself by wearing a multicoloured [End of page 170] colonel‘s uniform, which he had been given in exchange for this ancient sovereignty. ¡NAMUNCURÁ! How many memories this name awakens in the mind of an Argentine!

Villages, towns, hamlets, rivers, the [river] Colorado, which was the frontier in 1833, the Río Negro, whose upper course was a mystery until the campaign of 1880, have unfolded in front of my eyes through the windows of the train.

Leaving Bahía Blanca, the old rail-head of our civilization, all, or almost all, which one sees is new, is the child of intelligent man over the barbarity which, during so many years, had its hide-outs here."

And he adds: "Two communities are being established at the extreme end of this line of the Southern Railway: that on the left bank which is known as Limay (now Cipolletti) and on the right which is called Neuquén station.

Visit the Justice of the Peace, Señor Pascual Claros. His place is made up of two mud shanties, a table and various chairs."

The reference, then, is made to the journey from the confluence to Chos Malal, the then capital of Territory of Neuquén, in which, for so many years, was the barbarous throne of savagery in constant battle with civilization.

He said: "Chos Malal is like Timbuctoo, the ancient and mysterious city in the centre of Africa, or like Lake Chad in the same region, which had not been known by civilized man other than through the fantastic tales of a lost traveller, who had heard them from the lips of slaves escaped from their despotic masters.

Neuquén station, located 1194 kilometres from Buenos Aires, is reached in twenty eight hours in sleeping carriages, having a restaurant and all modern conveniences.

In Neuquén the difficult journey truly starts; it is as well to anticipate it.

We must make our journey in six days, of which only the first and last offer us rest and sustenance under a roof. For the rest, wastelands and sandy deserts are crossed, where there are no villages, no trees, no people, no shade.

For those of us in Buenos Aires who are used to travelling in six hours to the City of Rosario, whose distance away is the same, it will seem amazing that it took six days to reach Chos Malal from Neuquén, but to these we must advise them, that a year ago it took fifteen days and, until two years ago, there was only one mail delivery per month. When the governor, señor Lisandro Olmos, arrived for the first time and there was no railway to Neuquén, it took him a month and a half to reach Chos Malal from the Federal Capital.

Finally, eleven years ago in 1889, I remember a beautiful evening in which I strolled along the streets of the capital city of Chile and I had the pleasure of meeting with my distinguished friend Colonel Don Manuel [End of page 171] José Olascoaga, who at that time was chief of the boundary commission for the Bolivian frontier, and I said to him "My Colonel! How pleased I am to see you here! What good thing has brought you to Santiago?"

He replied to me, "I‘m going to my governorship in the Neuquén."

"What? To go to Neuquén you‘re going by Santiago de Chile?"

"It‘s obvious my good friend," he replied to me, "taking the train from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, crossing through the Cordillera to here, and then recrossing opposite Neuquén, I get to my governorship there much more quickly and relaxed than I would have been riding on horseback across the hundreds of leagues of pampas, deserts and mountains which separate that place from the Argentine capital."

Here end the paragraphs of Dr Carrasco‘s report to his superiors.

Chileans born in the Argentine.

Frankly, it must be admitted that, before the arrival of the railway to Neuquén, the small population and little commerce which there was, had many more connections with Chile than with the Argentine.

I will relate a curious case to illustrate this. It happened during the visit in November 1919, of Mr Lemarque, the Minister of Agriculture, to the first oil well in Plaza Huincul. [End of page 172]

Engineer Cánepa, in charge of the works, had opened a school in a house to teach the children of the increasing number of workmen to read and write. I invited the Minister to listen to a conversation which I initiated with a pupil from which he would learn of the ignorance and erroneous knowledge of the natives of the Neuquén [territory] as to their true nationality.

I selected at random a boy about twelve years old and asked him what he was called. Satisfying my question, I then asked him about his nationality, to which he replied "Chilean". "Where were you born?" "In Neuquén," he replied. I continued "Where were you baptised?" "In Neuquén," he replied. "Then you are an Argentine," I declared. But the youngster vehemently declared "no," he was Chilean.

In honour of the Minister, the Argentine flag had been hoisted on top of the tower at the oil well and pointing to it, "This is your country‘s flag," to which he replied that it was not, and that he preferred his own country‘s flag, completed convinced that he was Chilean.

From the arrival of the rails at Neuquén and Zapala, and the start of the progressive intensive official action, everything changed, and no doubt at all could linger among the inhabitants, that Neuquén Territory is clearly Argentine, and that those who are born there, whatever the nationality of their parents, are Argentines.

On the arrival of the first trains at Neuquén and the establishment of government there, transport agencies, cartage firms, stores and all types of business houses started to develop actively and gradually the population [End of page 173] and the products of the territory and the mountains were channeled more towards Argentine markets. The same happened with those in Colonia Lucinda, Colonia Roca and the Upper Valley.

The marvellous effect of irrigation on dry lands.

During the occupation of the Río Negro Territory by military forces, an irrigation canal was dug in 1882 with its point of abstraction on the Río Neuquén. Even though it was of simple construction, it could irrigate between 300 and 1,000 hectares of land. In the memorable flooding of the Río Neuquén in 1899, it was almost totally destroyed, the cultivated land washed away, villages knocked down and the canal almost completely infilled.

The waters of that flood rose to a metre above the floor level of the houses and advanced on the military encampments, destroying the nascent village of General Roca, where most of whose houses were built of adobe. All that was left after the flood was the San Miguel school and the chapel of the Salesian Congregation, because they were more solidly built.

The praiseworthy work of the Salesian priests, as much in Río Negro [territory] as in the Neuquén [territory] and Tierra del Fuego [territory] consecrated their lives to remedying the ignorance and barbarity of the children of the ancient forest-dwellers of those districts, causes astonishment. It is logical and just to count them among the most advanced Argentine representatives of progress in the South.

The aforementioned canal was rebuilt during the occupation of the military forces, but its operation remained precarious and risky, because of the constant threat to its point of abstraction from the untamed river.

The resident engineer of the bridge over the Neuquén [Engineer Carlos Krag] proposed a new intake and the necessary materials for the work were sent in 1902. They had been deposited on the banks of the river when a large flood swept them away and altered the course of the river.

For many years the canal operated with difficulty, providing irrigation to a few hectares of land.

The Cooperativa de la Colonia Roca organisation was established on 27 September 1907. The acquisition of small-holdings required the contribution of $50 [$ = peso] per hectare for the maintenance of this canal.

Under the intelligent guidance of Don Patricio Piñeiro Sorondo, the president of the co-operative, the bed of the canal was enlarged to obtain a flow of 2,500 to 3,000 litres per second of water.

The alterations in level were undertaken from January 1910 and completed a year later with complete success [End of page 174] which added to the fame of the Argentine Engineer José A. Marcet, who was an enthusiastic follower of the English school of irrigation. His renown in the planning of hydraulic works, undertaken in Mendoza, Tucumán and Patagones, was confirmed in Río Negro. The new canal cost the cooperative the sum of $700,000.

The village of General Roca, as I‘ve said, was almost totally destroyed by the flood of 1899. It was rebuilt in a better selected site some four kilometres to the west of the original, in a spot which the waters of the Río Negro could not reach in its floods. The village was called Roca Nuevo.

The life of this village was simply vegetative until 1912, when the canal reconstructed by the Cooperativa de Irrigación was opened to the users of irrigation as a public service. In due course, the village of Roca knew how to make the best use of the benefits of irrigation.

This canal irrigated a portion of the rich soils of the Alto Valle of the Río Negro, since Colonia Roca alone comprised 40,000 hectares. In the area of Zorrilla, adjoining Colonia Roca, were another 40,000 hectares extending to the east of Chinchinales station or almost a length of 100 kilometres of uncultivated land, traversed by the railway. It was necessary to study the possibility of increasing the irrigation on a grand scale.

Engineer Guillermo Villanueva, former Director of Public Works of the Nation, knowledgeable about men and things in his profession, in his journey through Europe, engaged on behalf of the Government, the Italian Engineer César Cipolletti to direct the hydraulic and irrigation works in the Province of Mendoza and then in San Juan and part of Tucumán.

Law 3,927, dealing with the construction of irrigation canals and studies of the Río Neuquén, Río Negro and Río Colorado was submitted to the Minister of Public Works. The President of the Republic commissioned, by decree of 31 December 1898, Engineer Cipolletti to prepare, prior to a general inspection, a preliminary report on the best and most favourable usage of the aforementioned rivers to provide irrigation for the lands through which they pass, defining in a memorandum the studies which would need to be undertaken.

In the first days of the month of February 1899, all was ready to start the task and, on the 14 of the same month, the commission met in General Roca, proceeding to undertake the final arrangements for the different expeditions and to brief the engineers seconded to the Director on the instructions relative to carrying out the various parts of the studies. In the brief space of eight months, the completed report was submitted to the Government, giving the answers and solutions to the question posed in the memorandum, recommending the best and most convenient courses of action [End of page 175] for the use of the waters of the rivers Limay, Neuquén, Negro and Colorado in order to apply them to the irrigation of the land which could be worked.

The critical international situation, which then affected the country, caused the suspension of the works which had been reported upon, but Engineer Cipolletti‘s technical concept remained demonstrable, as much in the great report presented as in its resistance to analysis and criticism for almost a decade.

Engineer Cipolletti, having finished his work in Argentina, returned to Italy, and, during nine years, undertook important works involving the greatest hydraulic problems in his homeland. Amongst other important studies, he prepared that for the improvement of the regime of the river Tiber, from Rome to the sea. This work earned him recognition by the king who honoured him with the title of Commendator.

Again contracted by the Argentine Government to direct the construction of his great project in the Río Negro Territory, he left his homeland for a second time in January 1908, heading for Buenos Aires aboard the steamer Tomaso di Savoia. However, unfortunately, he died on board after a short illness on 23 January of that same year.

Engineer Cipolletti was replaced by one of his assistants, Engineer Decio Severini, and some pertinent negotiations resulted in the appointment of the undertaking of the Southern Railway as the authority responsible for the works. These were assessed by Engineer R.G. Kennedy who, in an extensive report, voiced various objections to the proposals.

The commission of assessors for the works of regularizing the regime of the Río Negro was established by decree of 29 July 1909, in order to rule on the works proposed by Engineer Decio Severini, taking into account the observations made by Engineer R.G. Kennedy in his report. All aspects were considered and, after a lengthy discussion, ruled in favour of Engineer Severini‘s project and declared that the projected work to create a reservoir in the Cuenca [depression] de Vidal was consistent with the requirements contained in law 3,559 and did not prejudice the other complementary works of the overall plan to control the risings of the Río Negro and the suppression of the danger from floods which threatened the valley of the Río Negro giving rise to benefits which justified the expenditure involved by the projected works.

This report was signed by Engineers M. Iturbe, Otto Krause, Julián Romero, E. V. Lange, E. Molina Civit and R. de Candolle, this last being the Deputy General Manager of the Southern Railway.

The works were started on 1 January 1910. The placing of the foundation stone by Dr. José Figueroa Alcorta, the President of the Nation, [End of page 176] took place on 17 March with the dignified solemnity of the momentous event. Also involved in the ceremony was the future president, Dr. Roque Sáenz Peña, who, from this first moment, gave high priority to these works, as the basis of the future greatness of Southern Argentina.

A train is held up to allow the passengers to shave.

I refer here to an anecdote, in relation the journey made by the presidential train, which I believe is being made public for the first time.

The President of the Republic, Dr. Figueroa Alcorta, travelled with his retinue in a special train from Buenos Aires to the banks of the Río Neuquén. It had been arranged that the train should stop at Bahía Blanca to change engines before continuing its journey. It happened that, leaving Cabildo station at the scheduled time, it was excessively delayed in reaching the next station, Adela Corti. This caused considerable anxiety, which was increased when a horseman arrived at the station and told the Station Master that he had seen a passenger train in the distance, stopped in the middle of the countryside. Fearing that something had happened to the engine or coaches of the presidential train, he arranged to send an engine with all care to investigate what had happened, or render assistance should it be necessary. Just as the engine was about to leave Adela Corti, it was seen that the train was approaching at high speed, which was maintained as far as Grünbein, where the Minister of Public Works Dr Ramos Mexía, who was travelling on the same train, requested that it not go into Bahía Blanca, but that the engine should be changed at Spurr junction. Accordingly, all the previously made arrangements were cancelled, and the train continued on its journey from Spurr.

As the press had announced that the presidential train would arrive in Bahía Blanca at ten, the illustrious General Arana with his general staff and the military band had met at the station in order to greet the President and his retinue. There were many members of the public there too, on the platforms, awaiting such distinguished passengers. It is easy to understand what they all felt.

On enquiring as to the reasons as to why the train had been so long delayed between Cabildo and Adela Corti, it was understood that Minister Ezequiel Ramos Mexía had arranged this so the passengers could shave with the train stationary . . . !

The Speech of Minister Don Ezequiel Ramos Mexía at the inauguration of the works.

I believe it is of interest to reproduce the most beautiful speech made by the Minister of Public Works at the laying of the foundation stone for the irrigation works. It follows: [End of page 177]

"Tomorrow we are going to inaugurate the services of the first section of the Patagonic railways and we are gathered here today in the middle of the desert to place the first stone which will soon be the great Neuquén dam destined to control the hydraulic regime of the Río Negro.

Thus, we are fulfilling the promises of the law for the development of the national territories, which are not such fantasy as their detractors claim. One by one, the monuments which celebrate the glorious centenary of 1810 are raised and placing, one after another, the surveyors‘ staves along the road which we have traversed to reach the second age-old cycle, which I will show tomorrow, because the time flies for the people of one of the most powerful nations and one of the most rapid advances recorded in the chronicle of human progress.

I am going to tell of what we propose to do, but before that you must allow me to define to you the ancestry of these ideas which move our arm. Very old things have returned as new things with the passage of time.

The history of humanity represents the most vibrant reaction of man upon man. It is its own work, and its most knowledgeable master returns, transmitting his teachings across the ages, as its mysterious echoes reverberate among his majestic ravines; which, there on the horizon, serve as a mark of this simple patriotic ceremony. It is not that history repeats itself, as I have said, but as a fertile and useful fœtus returns what it has received, improving with sedimentary contributions of innumerable generations, pregnant with experiences and examples.

Ancient inscriptions and papyruses relate that, in the confines of Hebrew theology, some 4,000 years before the Messianic appearance, a knowledgeable people, [End of page 178] a thousand times illustrious, printed on immortal pages, resistant to the merciless rigours of endless ages, a sovereign lesson, which we are now going to use, how once more in the natural order, it is always the dead who confirm and rule the living.

This people taught the world to correct the blind action of the meteoric laws with works of human ingenuity and thought to resolve, with remarkable certainty, a problem identical to the one confronting Argentines today sixty centuries later. Equally it was the hydraulic situation and surrounded by such obvious geological circumstances that comparing them with a cyclopean plague of the planet‘s chaotic constructions.

A day such as this, lost in the mists of the far-away epochs as this is and evoking, due to finding itself linked with us now, a multi-coloured multitude on the banks of a generous legendary river, to celebrate the start of the greatest irrigation works, of which there is a memory from ancient times and without a rival in modern times.

The Egyptians witnessed success, and the famous Nile, that great river threatening in its terrible arrogance, which today carries abundant riches, where once it bore devastating disasters.

The Nile‘s problems were two-fold: avoid the floods due to the high water level and create a continuous supply of water in times of drought so the irrigation would not fail the poor flack disadvantaged in their season of golden expectations. The Egyptians of the Twelfth Dynasty, in the reign of Amenemhat resolved to create the great lake Moeris, described by Herodotus who visited it 450 years before Christ. Four centuries later it was also the subject of comment by Diodoro of Sicilia and Estrabón who put the matter in the following terms:

"There – it is said – by virtue of its size and depth, lake Moeris is capable of receiving the excess water of the Nile in times of flood, preventing the flooding of houses and gardens, when the water level drops the lake empties its waters by an artificial canal for irrigation."

So wide and deep was this lake, that it was the scene of bloody naval battles between the Egyptians and the Lebanese. So important was the possession of the sluices of Hawara, by which it returned its surpluses to the Nile, that their possession allowed the Lebanese to impose on the pharaohs the legendary scarcity of production in the time of Joseph.

With the passage of the years, these great works have disappeared, and today modern science has not found another means of taking advantage of the elements of richness which even now are lost running sterile between the banks of the gigantic river which its capability in reserve, reforming the lost inland sea in the valleys of Wadi Rayan, once covered by its waves. [End of page 179]

The lesson of the past is thus transmitted to the people of today in their own country where the great masters of antiquity operated. The teaching is so vast that, overflowing the mark of its repeated applications, it traverses the modern world of America to offer itself as an unimprovable model to new and no less fertile undertakings.

The problem of the Nile was exactly the same as that of the Río Negro with which we are dealing today. Here as there, we have a Colossus to dominate, so that the fertile valleys which run between tight bends, are not devastated, covering it with 9,000 cubic metres a second at times and, at others causing the valiant cultivators of its banks to thirst with negligible flows as little as 250 cubic metres a second.

Drowned or dried-up, these fields full of promises, would remain wildernesses, if the hydraulic regime of the river were not governed as the other, to dampen its excesses helping its shortages. Here as there, for lack of water, we have valueless lands, which with it gain in inverse proportion. Here as there, arid sandy places have been changed by the action of man into orchard paradises as today you may verify.

Lake Moeris was and will be enriched by receiving via a diversionary canal the excess waters of the Nile in times of high water exactly as will Lago Pellegrini receive the excess from the Neuquén to return it to the river during summer. Both lakes will have a total capacity of the same 5,000,000,000 cubic metres with a useful supply of the same 2,000,000,000 cubic metres. [End of page 180]

See if the similarity of the figures does not suggest the idea which crept in at the beginning which at times the mountains and even seismic movements have weaknesses which carry men into sincere and inoffensive rhapsodies.

The Neuquén dam and the future outlet tunnel from the loch, combined with the Nahuel-Huapí dam, which we are about to construct, will have the double mission of playing the part the so-called sluice of Hawara and the great Asswan reservoir and when the secondary dams at lochs Traful, Huechulauquen, Lolog y Aluminé, are completed, the Río Negro and its affluents, the Neuquén and the Limay, will remain like tamed lions, subject to the dominating rule of human ingenuity which never fulfils its superior mission so well as when it uses dangers and evils to obtain positive benefits for the community.

To achieve this first outcome, whose principal efficient base will be entrusted to the edifice which will sit on this corner-stone which were are about to place. The second part of the vast plan will be the excavation of the distribution canals which will carry the irrigation water to a million hectares of potential fertile land with this great hydraulic system.

These works are in full swing, entrusted to the eminent engineers, Severini and Cantutti, who have come to carry out to perfection the general intentions of the illustrious and late lamented Cipolletti for whose painful loss, two intimately bound-together nations, Italy and the Argentine Republic, cry.

The irrigation of the Río Neuquén becomes today, gentlemen, an utopic inspiration, converting it into a tangible and indubitable deed, which could only be interrupted with difficulty.

The Government has the money in the bank to carry out the work of improving the rivers, and the great undertaking of the Southern Railway, whose financial means are well known, has contracted to construct, without any profit whatsoever, the distribution works, receiving in payment irrigation bonds issued by the Executive Power. There remain then, the works started which will continue until complete, all the canals, roads and plots undertaken by a powerful company which is primarily motivated to execute it by the sums raised from the traffic generated by this work.

United by this happy circumstance, the strong interest of the undertaking of the Southern Railway, and the financial means which it commands, as is well-known, the irrigation of the Río Negro must be considered as virtually complete, as there can be no force which can resist the march of progress in this privileged region of the Republic. All that is lacking is that time passes and this, unfortunately, will never stop happen. [End of page 181]

Having completed the part of the task undertaken by the Government, it was left to the land owners to complete the vast dream. It is not that the fertile water flows through the furrow-less fields, returning sterile to the river from which it came. The first thing to occupy them must be the preparation of the land for intensive cultivation, requiring considerable capital to clear, level, break-up and sow seed. For such good reason, the cost of water in poor land will be ruinous to landowners, who will have to pay, whether they use it or not. This is a legal requirement, precisely to avoid the retrograde activity of some ill-willed people who would think it appropriate to speculate for their own benefit, to the general detriment of the community.

Before finishing, as it is already time-up, I must tell you why the loch, which this dam will create, has been called Pellegrini. I‘ve asked the President to allow this name, close to the heart of Argentines, to be used for the future inland sea in memory of the great statesman who, with a prophetic finger, pointed me to the initiative which today we are starting to realize when the original law of development was presented to Congress, "Add to it the irrigation of the Río Negro," he told me, "and dedicate all your efforts, as there is nothing greater to do in our country."

Here already is the work planted, the initiative added a the long list of fertile and genial thoughts of the Government, and Lago Pelligrini, for ever baptized as a monument dedicated to his memory.

Thanks to the great works which we are inaugurating today, these places, not long ago subject to the crafty depredations of the savages, will pay in the violent transition of the harsh appearance of a desert transformed into the vision of a colossal flourishing of richness and progress. The vision of this near future is clear before my eyes, and if contemplating it, I would be able to isolate myself in the domains of dreams away from the rigid ceremonial which surrounds and confronts me in this moment in which I now live, and would carry me once more to the great phantasy to imagine, in these untilled lands, a great province, growing and fully cultivated. Its fields covered with millions of trees, covered in all sorts of fruits, the land into converted into small holdings, cultivated intensely and scientifically, the deaf rumour of the silent countryside, extinguished by the murmur of hundreds of hydro-electric turbines which generate power for machines, heat for homes and light for brains.

One must allow still the fortune which, in a not far away day, will return here the actors of this precursory scene to contemplate the sublime spectacle of an area full of beauty and poetry and if one of them might say to his companion

"My dear President – We have placed a grain of sand for a great work of civilization. We serve this satisfaction serves as conscience as [End of pages 182 & 183] compensation for such bitter receipts while we were engaged in the task and the embrace gives us reciprocal congratulations."

Thus ended the most beautiful inauguration speech of the Minister of Public Works, Mr Ramos Mexía, who still has the same interest as he did then.

To complete the analogy, Engineer Garrow worked in Egypt.

As the Southern Railway was disposed to bring to fruition the projected irrigation works between Lago Pelligrini and Chinchinales station in the valleys of the rivers Neuquén and Negro, all in accord with Law 6,546, a contract was signed with the Minister of Public Works thus assuring the realization of an initiative of supreme national importance, whereby [End of page 184] one of the areas of best soils in the Republic, which up till then were totally unproductive, would be brought into cultivation.

It was then necessary for the undertaking of the Southern Railway to find an engineer with ample knowledge of irrigation works. As of 9 March 1910, Engineer Roberto G. Garrow was engaged. He had constructed important irrigation works in Egypt. That technical person arrived in the country in April 1911, taking immediate charge of the construction of the canal. [End of page 185]

They mistook me for my father ...

Mr Ramos Mexía, who was a dynamic functionary and enthusiastic driver of the irrigation works in the valley of the Río Negro undertook various visits to the Upper Valley during his time as a minister. I had the honour to accompany him on his trips at that time. Now retired from politics and public affairs, twenty something years after having placed the foundation stone of the work, he expressed the desire to undertake a journey through the Upper Valley with a view to seeing the progress made by the construction of the canal. The General Manager of the Southern Railway, Don J.M. Eddy invited him to accompany him on one of his inspections of that area. Passing through Bahía Blanca, on getting off the train, Mr Eddy, referring to me, said to Mr Ramos Mexía, "I present my representative in this district to you, Mr Coleman."

"Aha!" said Mr Ramos Mexía, addressing me, "I knew your father well."

Surprised, I asked him where he had met him, to which he replied that it was many years ago, when the works for the construction of the canal in the Alto Valle of the Río Negro were started. He added that my father always accompanied him. I couldn‘t help smiling at the ex-minister and, after thanking him for the compliment, had to explain to him that the person accompanying him on his journeys had been me and not my father whom Mr Ramos Mexía never had the opportunity of meeting.

Arid lands changed into orchards.

When the inhabitants of the irrigated area understood that the great work was soon to become a beautiful reality, an enormous growth of activity resulted. [End of page 186]

Many landowners subdivided their large fields, and an undertaking acquired several leagues into which they incorporated the undeveloped land known as de La Picasa, located between Cipolletti and Contraalmirante Cordero. They subdivided and sold it in plots of from five to ten hectares for intensive cultivation. As a result of such expansion, the Southern Railway established an experimental smallholding of the first order in Cinco Saltos, [End of page 187] run by agronomists and competent technical staff with the object of giving free instruction, based on scientific criteria, as to the most suitable fruit trees for the area, to the fruit-growers. These trees, of the best varieties from abroad, were acquired in great quantities by the Southern Railway, and then sold to the fruit-growers at cost price, which resulted in the great change to that landscape.

The creation of the Cinco Saltos experimental small-holding was authorised by the London directorate in September 1918. The end achieved with the creation of the modern agronomy station was the promotion of the scientific development of the irrigated lands in the valley, making use of the efforts of the technical agronomists of the station. [End of pages 188, 189 & 190]

The Directors approved an expenditure of £3,500 for the purchase of land in La Picasa, its preparation and operation, acquiring 24 hectares at a cost of $6,000 [about £1,200].

Engineer Don Juan Barcia Trelles was appointed director of the agronomy station on a five year contract. He undertook a fruitful effort which was reflected in the methods adopted by the fruit-growers of the valley and in the variety of fruit trees planted on its lands.

The first budget of the Cinco Saltos experimental small holding was $84,460 [about £16,892], which included the value of the acquired land, the tools, seeds, buildings, draft animals, etc. [End of page 191]

Once regular production had started with the planted trees, there was a fear of lack of markets for so much fruit due to an inadequate distribution of the produce. Again the Southern Railway came to the rescue of the colonisers, initiating the establishment of an organisation which assured the disposal of the whole of the production, whether for internal or foreign consumption, and its colonization.

With this review of the actions, I have indicated the primordial factor which contributed to the conversion of a region, which was totally desert, into an emporium of richness and well being. All those fields, which were subdivided, became orchards of such high quality that it is doubtful if its selected products can be surpassed anywhere. [End of pages 192 & 193]

The de La Picasa fields became a garden of the most concentrated production and it is doubtful if nowadays there is a single hectare of this fertile earth which remains unproductive.

It is only fair to do homage and record some of the drivers of progress in the Alto Valle of the Río Negro who, with their sacrifices, worked the virgin lands, to obtain from them, the just return on their patriotic and enthusiastic efforts. Among them are Messrs Patricio & Miguel Piñeiro Sorondo; Augusto Mengelle, Marcial Muñoz, (Colonel) Fernández Oro, Jorge Larrosa, González, Larrosa & Contreras, Scala, Luis J. Casterás, (Dr) Doleris, Moll & Martínez, Belloni, Huergo & Canale, etc., and, in Neuquén, the brothers Plottier, Dr Agustín Battilana, Mr Linares and others.

The La Picasa and Lucinda colonies comprise 2,000 hectares between Contraalmirante Cordero and Cipolletti, where there has been a branch railway since 1910. It runs the whole distance of 35 kilometres.

The war of 1914 causes a great project to fail.

In addition to his ownership of Colonia Lucinda, Dr Doleris was part of a syndicate which owned 2,000 hectares of land in Colonia Roca and proposed the installation of a great sugar industry with French capital. They proposed to obtain power for the [End of page 194] machinery, using the existing weirs on the Grand Canal and named two of his children to run the project. One of them was an agronomist in Canada, and the other came from France. On the breaking-out of war in 1914, both sons returned to France in order to meet their military obligations. One of them died at Verdun on 20 May 1915 and the other, also there, on the following day. As a result of this tragedy Dr Doleris, having been a great mover, sold-off all his interests in the valley. [End of page 195]

Dr J. Amadeo Doleris, such a great enthusiastic colonizer of the valley of the Río Negro, reached Bahía Blanca on 8 June 1910, accompanied by Don Pedro Benegas, the well-known wine-grower from Mendoza and together we travelled the Alto Valle. I explained the development of the works and the prospects which the methodical and assured irrigation would bring.

Dr Doleris was a true personality who had come to the Argentine as a delegate to the International Scientific Congress held in Buenos Aires in 1910 to mark the centenary of independence. In France, he occupied a notable position in industrial centres, and owned a modern establishment in Lambaya in the Pyrenees. He was a member of the Academy of Medicine in Paris, Commendator of Agricultural Merit, President of the French Wine-Growers Society, Gentleman of the Legion of Honour and National Deputy.

His retirement from the Alto Valle of the Río Negro signified a real loss for progress in the region given the great projects which he cherished and which his capacity and energy had brought to fruition.

The French writer Jules Huret at Lago Pellegrini.

At that time, the construction of the Grand Canal developed an active propaganda. On the occasion of the visit of the well-known French writer Jules Huret and his wife to the Argentine in 1909, they were invited to visit the vicinity of the point of abstraction and Lago Pellegrini offering them all imaginable facilities.

The visitors arrived in Bahía Blanca in a reserved coach which was formed into a special train. It went on its way immediately, accompanied by Engineer Jorge Delpech and myself. At Cipolletti, Mr Luis J. Casteras, who met us, provided the means of transport on to Lago Pellegrini, a seven league journey and so rough that it took six hours to get to our destination.

We climbed to a high point to view the panoramic view of what was to become Lago Pellegrini. The details of the big project under way were explained to Mr Huret, indicating the depression with an area of some 28,000 hectares which would be converted in the future into a reservoir or artificial lake, retaining the waters of the Río Neuquén in times of high water, thus reducing the dangers from floods in the valley of the Río Negro.

The plans of the works were made available to the writer, and complete details of the project were given, so that they could be documented, and a book or journalistic articles prepared, which would attract the attention of agriculturalists in Europe with a view to showing them the possibilities which would be offered to them in a valley provided with irrigation. [End of page 196 & 197]

In return for all our efforts, we received unequivocal demonstrations of boredom and disinterest, brought about by the visitors having come from Buenos Aires and their experiencing the discomfort of the road from Cipolletti to the loch in order to show them such a puny thing, by their criterion.

Our repeated efforts at making the writer and his wife understand the importance for the Argentine of the project which was being undertaken were completely useless and, resulting from of our frustrated hopes, Engineer Delpech spoke frankly to the writer, saying that it was necessary to be an engineer to understand such things. Possibly the meaning contained in Mr Delpech‘s words did not register with Mr Huret.

In the face of such antagonism by visitors so ill-disposed or badly influenced by the inconveniences experienced, it was easy to understand that little or nothing could be said to support of the works. We resolved to return without even visiting the town of Neuquén.

Once more in Cipolletti, we reoccupied the coaches of the special train and started, disappointed and somewhat out of humour, on the return to Bahía Blanca. I gave orders to the train crew not to stop at any station, other than to take on water or cross another train.

A Senegalese believed she was meeting her countryfolk in the Valley.

The first stop on the return journey was at Chelforó, where the engine took on water. The following stage was to be to Choele Choel (the present day Darwin), but, to our great surprise, we were stopped at Chimpay by the Station Master, who asked us if we had lost a passenger, adding that, on the platform at Chelforó, there was a lady of "indigenous appearance" whose language nobody understood. Facetiously, I told him that the train wasn‘t carrying any coloured persons. At least that was what we thought.

As Mrs Huret did not understand what we were saying in our conversation, Engineer Delpech explained what it was about. The lady indicated that it must be her nanny and on inspecting the compartment closely where she had been travelling was able to establish that she was missing. We couldn‘t do other than return to Chelforó, 35 kilometres away, in search of the servant girl of "indigenous appearance".

None of the passengers on the train, excepting Mr Huret and his wife, knew that such an important person was travelling, since from the departure from Bahía Blanca up to the return to Chelforó, nobody had seen her.

The nanny explained to her employers that, while the engine was taking water at Chelforó, she saw through the window of her compartment the policeman in charge of the detachment and his wife with some children near a shack on the other side of the fencing and, as they were the same colour as herself, she thought that they were from her own country and, without saying anything to anyone, got off the train and walked to the shack to have a conversation. [End of page 198]

One can imagine the surprise of all of them when they could not understand her despite the colour of her skin. The Senegalese returned disappointed to the station and tried to explain to the Station Master that she was a passenger of the train which had departed.

Once the nanny was recovered, the journey restarted and, on reaching Darwin, the visitors expressed a great desire to get to know the island of Choele Choel. As we were not disposed to entertain them, I replied that they could do this another day, and that our destination just now was Bahía Blanca in order to catch the train to Buenos Aires.

The prodigious transformation of the Valley.

To detail all the progress in this area would occupy many volumes. I will limit myself to summarising, for example, the evolution experienced by one of the towns, in this case, Allen.

I well remember the enormous difficulties experienced by the first settlers in the region. The first house built in Allen was built by Señor Patricio Piñeiro Sorondo in 1909-10. There were no signs of life about it. The building materials had to be brought from Río Negro station (today‘s Stefenelli) by roads which were hardly tracks. To avoid this difficult journey, I had the goods trains stop near the site which is today [End of page 199] Allen station, opening the fences to allow the materials to be unloaded into the open countryside thus avoiding the difficult and costly cartage over a distance of 25 kilometres.

Allen is now a flourishing village with 10,000 inhabitants between the built-up and the rural area. It has municipal police and legal authorities, an office of agricultural defence, civil registry office, vegetable health, street lighting in town, post and telegraph office, railway station, hospital, telephone etc. In addition there is a public library, five schools, church, two banks, thirteen sporting societies, two cinemas and a theatre. [End of pages 200 & 201]

Among the numerous population are professionals, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers. Its activities develop, builders, auctioneers, 76 businesses of all types. There are 32 industries operating, including eight wine cellars and the important tomato and fruit conserves plant owned by Félix Bagliani & Co, who deserve to stand out, by virtue of the excellence of their products, which are a national pride. It gives work to a great many people. Its manufacturing capacity of 220 tons of tomato conserve a day at the peak of the harvest gives an idea of its importance. Moreover, as I have said, this firm processes immense quantities of pears, peaches, damsons, cherries, plums and strawberries which are cultivated in the valley. It also makes excellent cider, comparable to the finest imported ones.

There are 104 establishments for agriculture, husbandry and farm products in Allen, plus 56 growers of potatoes, with at least 20 hectares each, 85 fruit growers, 64 vegetable growers, 64 wine cultivators and five dairy farms.

There are also gypsum and alabaster quarries which produce 10, 000 tons of lime and gypsum a year. [End of page 202]

The fields are valued at from 500 to 800 pesos per hectare. Allen, the village and its surroundings, has an area of some 8, 000 hectares.

When the Neuquén line was opened in 1899, there were only five stations between Choele Choel (today called Darwin) and the Río Neuquén. Today there are 28, including those on the branch line to Contraalmirante Cordero. Two mixed trains a week were more than ample for the scarce traffic; years later, there are twenty passenger, goods and express fruit and parcels trains a day, or about 150 per week.

Irrigation with the waters of the Limay.

When the railway line was extended from Neuquén to Zapala, there was no large scale production expected along its length, due to the aridity of the lands beyond Senillosa and the difficulty of irrigation, given that the line was so far away from the Río Limay. Nevertheless, between Neuquén and Senillosa an irrigation canal was built along the Río Limay with mechanical lifting of the water in a scheme prepared under the direction of Engineer César Fattore. This was opened in 1910. The lifting station was housed in a large building and comprised three steam engines of 100 hp each, coupled to centrifugal pumps which could each lift 800 litres of water a second. [End of pages 203, 204, 205 & 206]

The length of the main canal was 15 kilometres from the pumping station which was called Puerto Valentina, adjacent to the Los Canales colony of Dr Plottier, as far as the Southern Railway's bridge over the Río Neuquén. With the bringing into use of this canal, the formation of colonies within the irrigated area was started, as was the forming of streets, squares, boulevards in the capital of Neuquén territory.

Gradually the small holdings of La Valentina, Bouquet and Nueva España colonies served by this canal were cultivated. Messrs Plottier, were first to start, on their own account, the construction of a canal, also using the waters of the Limay some seven kilometres long with a capacity to irrigate 2, 000 hectares, lifting the water mechanically with two abstraction pumps driven by 75 hp motors.

Later, the National Government built a gravitational canal, with its point of abstraction in the vicinity of Senillosa, which supplied water to the fields originally irrigated by the two previously mentioned canals.

As a result of irrigation there are various colonies and small holdings in full production near the capital of Neuquén Territory, lands which, in the initial rough isolation, appeared arid and sandy, offering the most unattractive picture imaginable.

Zapala is the gateway to the Cordillera de los Andes.

Zapala has progressed greatly and is presently a centre of population of some importance, on which cattle, sheep and fruit converge from the Andean valleys, as well as general merchandise from Bahía Blanca and Buenos Aires. [End of pages 207 & 208]

Moreover, as Zapala is the end of the Neuquén line, it is the natural location to maintain the armed forces of the region, stationed the length of the Cordillera.

Opening of the line between Neuquén and Zapala.

On 1 January 1914, along with my wife, I left Bahía Blanca for Neuquén in order to travel on the following day, 2 January, on the first passenger train, which ran between Neuquén and Zapala. Never before, nor since, have I been able to experience in a few hours such a pronounced change in temperature, passing from an asphyxiating heat to such an intense cold.

On reaching Chichinales station, the temperature within the special coach in which I travelled reached 41ºC in the afternoon, while the following night, in Zapala, it was –2ºC. In mid summer, the stove in the coach had to be lit while we remained in Zapala, and we had to change our summer clothes for others, taking all our clothing from our luggage, so we could go to sleep without freezing. [End of page 209]

In the middle of summer such a variation in temperature must have been due to some unusual cause and shortly we found out that this same day there had been a violent snow storm in the Cordillera de los Andes. As the wind blew from the west, a wave of most extreme coldness swept into Zapala.

In Neuquén, my wife was invited to send off the first passenger train, and so she did, holding the event as a fond memory.

Periodic regime of thaws in the Neuquén and the Limay.

Given the enormous snow cap which accumulates annually in the Cordillera de los Andes, there are periodic risings depending on the amount of snow fallen, its melting, and the amount of rain which falls simultaneously in the catchment discharging to these rivers. The area amounts to 1, 000 kilometres along the length of the Andean chain. The greatest and least floods which may occur depend in the first instance on whether the two flood waves reach the confluence [End of pages 210, 211, 212 & 213] which forms the Río Negro at the same time.

A report of all rises and falls in the waters of the Río Limay are conveyed by telegraph from Paso Limay and the movements of the Río Neuquén from Paso del Indio. As the flood wave of this river takes 36 hours to arrive from Paso del Indio to the confluence, and 70 hours from Paso Limay, the dwellers on the low lands of the valley of the Río Negro have sufficient time to escape with their livestock and chattels, to take refuge on the high ground when there is warning of a dangerous flood.

The highest level recorded for one of the rivers, which form the Negro, is sufficient to cause a rise in it, but without causing a flood. [End of pages 214 & 215]

A flood is produced unfailingly when the two furious avenues discharge simultaneously into the Río Negro, giving rise to serious damage. Such an event has decreased enormously with the use of the artificial Lago Pellegrini which holds back the rising Neuquén and regulates the outflow of the excess water.

The highest level recorded in Paso del Indio on the Neuquén was 7.70 metres, while the upper limit of the Limay was 7.05 metres and the lowest 1.88 metres, data which was obtained in 1944.

The rails to Neuquén have only served for peace.

The amazing progress managed by the field of influence of the Neuquén line remains described in great brush strokes especially in that part of the Valle of the Río Negro which has become the California of South America as I had the occasion to report in 1910 when the Argentine Republic completed its first centenary as a free and sovereign nation.

It is thus as a railway line, constructed across the Patagonic desert solely for urgent military contingencies and having as its origin purposes of destruction and despoliation, it has achieved the building, in the space of a few years, a bond of civilization and progress, [End of page 216] the core of these lands once the field of action of the savage indian, the living sap which as a work of magic had made villages grow, becoming an immense beehive of work and production. That which was undeveloped land and whose surprising and rapid transformation into a great emporium which is admired today, very few suspected and even many doubted. [End of page 217]

Despite its importance the work was on the point of failing.

The irrigation works in the valley of the Río Negro for various reasons needed more capital than had been allocated originally, which was £800,000.

In 1915, the funds noted were about to be exhausted, and the probability of their being augmented was not likely, since the works were undertaken at such a great distance from the Federal Capital, where they were a little less than unknown by the ministers and the national legislators. This required matters to be taken forward with great discretion. [End of page 218]

The £800,000 had generated five years of continuous work, but in October 1915, it was estimated that the balance of the funds would last only until January 1916, which would result in the cessation of the irrigation works. Such a circumstance signalled a complete disaster, because the network of canals and the Contraalmirante Cordero regulating dam would remained incomplete and all that had been invested would lack any practical utility.

The General Manager of the Southern Railway resolved to enable the ministers and legislators to observe personally the important works already carried out [End of pages 219 & 220] and ongoing in the valley of the Río Negro, prepared an excursion to the area.

On the night of 14 October 1915, a special train of 62 axles left Plaza Constitución made up of the General Manager's official saloon, a coach for the Minister of Public Works, two restaurant cars, eleven sleeping cars and a luggage van.

The Minister of Public Works, Dr Manuel Moyano, of Housing, Dr Franciso J Oliver and of Agriculture, Dr Horacio Calderón travelled in the train. Among other personalities in the ministerial retinue were, Messrs Adolfo E. Davila, E. Weigel Muñoz, Alejandro Lértora. Alejandro Calvo, Diego F. Outes, Miles A. Pasman, Antonio C. Gandulfo, [End of pages 221, 222 & 223] Alberto Castaño, Alfredo Demarchi, Miguel Iturbe, Manuel Carranza, Honorio Segas, Jorge McClean, Eleodoro Lobos, (General) Racedo, (General) Aguirre, Félix Amesto, Julio Pueyrredón, Eduardo Crespo, Guillermo G. White, Luis E. Zuberbuhler, Santiago O'Farrell, Raúl S. Zavalia, Horacio Bustos Morón, R. Lemos, Nicolás R. Calvo, Antonio Piaggio, A. Vilate (son), Pedro Agote, Agustín Mercau, José Guerrico, Alfonso Durao, F. J. White, Angel Villa, Tomás Vera Barros, Arturo Peralta Ramos, J. M. Moss, Baldomero Sommer, Fernando D. Guerrico, Guillermo White, N. R. Fresco, R. de Candolle and a nucleus of journalists.

At Grünbein I joined the retinue, and accompanied them for the whole journey. The Minister of Agriculture left the party at the same station, because of some friction, it is said, with his public works colleague. On the 15th, they visited the Puerto Militar and the city of Bahía Blanca, and the next morning set off in the special train for the Alto Valle of the Río Negro. Mr Enrique Julio, Editor of the La Nueva Provincia newspaper joined the group.

On few occasions has it been possible for me to be part of an excursion such as this one for study and observation with so many representative people disposed to find the way to prevent such a great initiative from failing for lack of funds.

On the 16th at eight in the morning, the train reached, at the time specified, Allen station, where the Governor of [End of page 224] the Neuquén Territory, Mr Eduardo Elordi, along with Messrs Patricio Sorondo and Luis J. Casteras awaited the visitors. Eight motor cars were used to visit the various works. The engineers and technical assessors, with all the drawings to hand, showed the ministers around. At midday, Contraalmirante Cordero station was reached after a journey of four hours over bad dusty roads. I can confirm that, because I did the journey many times. The journey pleased no one, even though some of the journalists in the retinue appeared not to be put out by it, judged by the eloquent chronicles describing the visit.

The train was waiting in Contraalmirante Cordero. We then visited the dam under construction and the journey was resumed by motor car to Cipolletti, which was reached at six in the evening after having visited some of the small holdings being laid out and others already under cultivation. An hour later the train left for the capital of the Neuquén Territory and stopped on the railway bridge, so the excursionists could admire the splendid landscape and the broad Río Neuquén.

On the following day the irrigation works on the left bank of the Río Limay and the water pumping station, at a site some 15 kilometres from Neuquén, called Puerto Valentina, were visited. As I have said, this is where the Southern Railway's small steamers [End of page 225] Limay y Neuquén, were moored when they sailed on the Río Limay.

The said pumps had been installed by the National Government to facilitate the irrigation of some 3, 000 hectares of land between the river and the town of Neuquén. It had cost $400, 000, but such a fruitful idea did not prosper, and was spoilt by unrestrained private speculation. The lands which were bought originally for $20 the hectare in anticipation of being irrigated were sold at $600, resulting in uneconomic production.

The journey was intended to go as far as the railhead at Zapala, but it had to be cut short due to the need to return urgently to the Federal Capital. The area of irrigation, served at that time by the Co-operative's canal, in Allen and Colonia Roca was visited by motor car. At Roca the train was boarded for the return. Ingeniero White [station] was reached on the 18th at 5.30 in the morning. After a stop of a few minutes, the train left for Plaza Constitución which it reached at 7 in the evening. The total journey, by train and car, amounted to 2, 500 kilometres and the programme unfolded in accordance with the plan which had been prepared a week earlier, without any untoward events, except the omission of the visit to Zapala.

The hoped-for outcome of the visit was fully achieved, because in the face of the magnitude of the works already completed, the patriotic necessity of completing them by voting the necessary funds was understood. [End of page 226]

Products of the Neuquén line.

There were many most important people in Bahía Blanca itself who did not know the true scope and possibilities of the Alto Valle of the Río Negro and of the Neuquén National Territory for livestock, mineral and fruit production.

In December 1916, I devised a practical way of bringing this to their attention. It was the installation of a type of permanent exhibition of natural produce, raw materials and manufactured goods of the Alto Valle and the Pre-Cordillera.

To this end, I had a large display cabinet made and be placed in public view on the main platform of Bahía Blanca station along which thousands of passengers passed daily.

I asked the inhabitants, industrialists and fruit-growers of the area of the Río Negro and Río Neuquén to submit samples of their production. The number of samples which reached me was so great, that the exhibition had to be renewed periodically. It was admired by a great many of the public.

So successful was this simple exhibition of minerals, fruits, honey, natural silk, wines, photographs, etc that the Head of Traffic at Plaza Constitución asked me for an identical display cabinet which I sent to him. It was also used to display the produce of the Alto Valle of the Río Negro.

In Bahía Blanca the display cabinet remains to this day (1948). I am persuaded that it has in a great measure contributed to the dissemination of the beauties and riches abounding in that marvellous region, which water has converted into a paradise. [End of pages 227, 228 & 229]

How the irrigation of the lands of the Alto Valle of the Río Negro were started.

In 1912, when the great irrigation works of the arid lands of the Alto Valle of the Río Negro were being undertaken, it fell to me to report on their development and the state which the various private initiatives had reached. These in a limited fragmented form, already provided irrigation to small areas of country which had been cleared of their brush and partly levelled.

The old Roca Canal, which may be called the pioneering canal of the Valle of the Río Negro, constructed by Hilarión Furuque in a rudimentary form in 1882, took its supply from the Río Neuquén at the level of Cipolletti station of the Southern Railway. It was almost completely infilled by floods and could not supply more than a small portion of cultivable land. On the establishment of a Co-operative Society, presided over by Mr Patricio Piñeiro Sorondo, the situation changed, giving a significant impulse to the irrigation supplied by the Roca Canal. The length of the canal was 55 kilometres. It could abstract 16, 000 litres of water a second and, to ensure there was no reduction in volume supplied, a dredger was employed to keep the canal and its sluices free of sand and earth.Years before, in 1907, the Roca Canal could hardly deal with more than 1,200 litres a second, increased in 1908 to 2,400 and a year later to [End of pages 230 & 231] to 3,200, and ultimately reached 16,000 litres with the creation of the Co-operative.

The principal artery of the Co-operative fed the whole of a network of subsidiary canals. Thus 10,000 hectares could be irrigated, which were gradually cleared and levelled. With irrigation, there were more plantations of alfalfa and later fruit-trees.

The natural fields of the valley of the Río Negro, covered in piquillines, alpatacos, grease bushes, jarillas and other bushes native to the semi-desert region, were almost valueless, but with the possibility of irrigation, attracted quotations of about $500 per hectare on the basis that the cost of clearing the land did not exceed $100 per hectare.

At the same time, the Lucinda canal, which also took water from the Río Neuquén near Ferri station, irrigated the great establishments of Messrs Casterás, Cordiviola, Fernández Oro, (Dr) Diaz, Contreras and Cordero, together with other minor ones totalling more than 2,000 hectares.

A society was formed to cultivate 6,000 hectares of virgin land between Río Negro (today's Stefanelli) and Cipolletti stations. It had to build an abstraction point on the Río Negro with its own resources.

The illustrious Spanish writer Don Vincente Blasco Ibañez, who proposed the creation of an agricultural colony based on the method of intensive cultivation practised in Valencia, brought many market-gardening families from Valencia and Alicante in Spain and acquired an area of 2,500 hectares [End of pages 232 & 233] of uncleared land, which had by 1912 been duly prepared and sown. Some 1,800 were irrigated directly by a canal supplied by the Río Negro. The colony was located at Kilometre 1134 (today's Cervantes station) on the Neuquén line. A complete network of channels was excavated which was supplied by two massive pumps each of 500 litres per second capacity. The hopes which the writer Blasco Ibañez put into his initiative were wasted in half way through the work, although the work undertaken gave good results, even though in other hands.

All the early private canals, which I have mentioned, and which were then being built came to be subsidiary or auxiliary canals to the Grand Canal constructed by the Southern Railway to the account of the National Government. Its point of abstraction on the Río Neuquén was established seven leagues north west of Cipolletti and the grandiose canal runs along the edge of the high plain on the north side of the railway line as far as Chichinales station, a length of 100 kilometres.

In 1912, the colossal work of the dam at Contraalmirante Cordero was nearing completion, and some 35 kilometres of the principal canal had been completed. The width of the canal at its entry is 75 metres as far as the diversion, where the excess flow of the Río Neuquén during high flows, is sent to the channel which discharges into Lago Pellagrini, also known as Cuenca Vidal. At that time the future lake, completely dry, was no more than a closed valley, awaiting its transformation into the regulator of the Río Neuquén. [End of page 234]

There were numerous engineers employed in the irrigation works and on the dam, together with some 1,200 workmen using the most efficient machines.

On the awakening of interest in the Upper Valley of the Río Negro, individuals and corporations initiated land clearing and levelling works complemented by the opening of the waterways. At that time, in addition to those mentioned, the following water conduits were built or are under construction from the end of the Grand Canal: those of Messrs López Cabanillas, Carlos Tarelli and Drago, between Chelforó and Chinchinales; of Mr Pawly, in Chimpay; of Dr Jorge Lauri, Messrs Llausas, Murga and others with a capacity to irrigate 24,000 hectares, and in Choele Choel, another belonging to Mr Sarasola.

Other irrigation projects were being studied or financed. Large areas of countryside were being divided up, among those of Dr Zorilla between General Roca and Chinchinales, where the first tranche of 6,000 hectares was divided into plots of 100 hectares, a further 20,000 were being prepared. All were easily irrigated by the Grand Canal. At the same time the National Government, at some nine kilometres west of Neuquén had installed three pumps on the Río Limay, each with a capacity of 800 litres of water per second to supply canals with a total length of 20 kilometres which served 2,000 hectares under cultivation in the lands of Mr Casimiro Gómez, Widow Doclou, Mr Buque Roldán and various others. Eight kilometres [End of page 235] further away, Dr Plottier irrigated another 2,000 hectares in his establishment with water courses whose length was seven kilometres. When I write these lines in 1948, I cannot do less than feel satisfied [End of page 236 ] with what I wrote in 1912 predicting "It is not an exaggeration to presume that in a few years the valley of the Río Negro, from Neuquén to Choele Choel will be a great area for the production of alfalfa, fruit-trees, vines and other products, and perhaps the most important in the Republic." [End of pages 237, 238, 239 & 240]

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