ROSARIO a river-port on the Paranâ, and the chief town of a department in the province of Santa Fé in the Argentine Republic, 186 miles by river from Buenos Ayres. In 1853 an insignificant village, with less than four thousand inhabitants, it now ranks in commercial importance as the second city in the republic, being the centre of almost the entire trade of the eleven provinces lying between the Paranâ and the Andes and the terminus of the great railways which since 1863 have gradually been pushed further north and west to Cordoba (1870), Tucuman (1876), Mendoza (1884), and San Juan (1885). The population had increased to 21,000 by 1870 and to 45,000 in 1883, while the imports in the latter year reached the value of £4,560,000 and the exports £3,780,000.

Rosario stands about 65 feet above the level of the river. It is laid out chess-board fashion; and the streets are paved, and lighted with gas (introduced in 1869). The area, 145 acres in 1870, is now about 2000 acres. Brick is the principal building material, and the houses are mostly of one story. There are no suburbs, the city terminating abruptly on the great plain. The industrial establishments are extensive foundries, a large number of brick kilns, a jam and fruit-preserving factory, breweries, tanneries, soap-works, saw-mills, and flour-mills....