Note 145 — Chapter XXI · THE PARANA, ROSARIO, AND SANTA FÉ

"Now at last in our day progress is being made in the great neglected central zone watered by the Paraná, and here, as has been shown, the main line of advance will still be south and north. For if we accept the statement that mountains are the true frontiers of nations then the reverse also holds true, and the valleys that connect them are their best and natural highways. So when the railroads which already link Patagonia to Paraguay extend further along the great 'llanos' overshadowed by the Andes, right up to a navigable port on the Amazon, they will strengthen, better than any words or treaties, the ties of rational trade and intercourse between the republics whose hinterlands meet in the Paraná watershed" (W. S. Barclay, Ibid.). [145]