Greek Society of the Holy Sepulcher, discovered a mosaic which had apparently been 100 feet long and 66 feet wide, constituting a geographical chart of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, of which parts of Palestine and Egypt remained. It appears to have formerly included also Asia Minor, for an old resident of Medeba said that the names of Ephesus and Smyrna were still found several years ago in their proper situations. The date of the chart is assigned, from the character of the lettering and from the political divisions given and the absence of certain sacred places that should have been marked if it were of later composition, to between 350 and 450 A. D. The names of holy places are given only as to those for whose identity the authority of the Lord or of one of the prophets or of an early martyr can be cited. In addition to the old division, according to the twelve tribes, the plan of Palestine contains also the Roman division into a first, second, and third Palestine. The work is regarded as an important addition to our resources for Hebrew and Christian archæology, history, and geography, in respect to which the author points out as among the advantages it offers that it makes us acquainted with a number of places hitherto not known; it gives to the Christian geographical identifications of that period; it designates exactly the cities and sites of the time; it is valuable for the identification of certain passages of Scripture, as, for example, the prophecies of Jacob concerning his sons Joseph and Benjamin; and it delineates exactly the shape, style, and foundation plan of the houses of the period. It is represented as marking "where there were plains and caves, deserts and oases, hills and mountains, rivers and creeks and woods, springs hot and cold, lakes and pools, boats and ships, palms and bananas; and these are all designated in their natural colors.' The map appears to have been prepared with conscientious care, and is regarded as accurate.

Baalbec.-An appeal has been made by M. Casolani for the protection of the ruins of the temple of the Sun at Baalbec. It is believed that there were originally 58 columns. Of the 8 that remained in the latter part of the last century 6 are now standing, and some of them are rather dilapidated. The little that is left of the roof of the peristyle of the temple of Jupiter is also fast crumbling, two of the largest slabs that form it being in imminent danger of coming down.

Babylonia. Ruins of Nippur.-Reference was made in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1896 to some of the results of the excavations carried on by the expedition dispatched from the University of Pennsylvania at Niffer, the site of the ancient Nippur, on the Shat-en-Nil. More complete and definite accounts of these results have been published in books by Dr. J. P. Peters, the director of the first expedition, and in the editions of the cuneiform texts recovered, edited by Prof. Hilprecht. The central feature of the ruins at Niffer is the mound called by the Arabs Bint el Amir, "the Amir's daughter," which rises to about 100 feet above the surrounding plain. It marks the site of the great Ziggurat, or tower and temple which was built by Ur Gur or Ur Bahu, about 2800 B. C., and repaired and added to by later kings. Around this the explorations were conducted by Mr. Haynes, leader of the later expedition. A resemblance was noticed between the arrangement of this temple and tower and that of the early Egyptian pyramids and of the causeway connected with it and that between the temple of Khafra and the temple of the Sphinx; and a question is suggested as to which is earlier in origin. The tower was found to rest on a massive platform of crude brick, but beneath this was a second pavement of much finer construction, built of large

sun-dried bricks, nearly all of which were stamped with the names of Sargon I and Naram-Sin, his son, about 3800 B. C. These kings were both described as "builder of the temple of Mullil," which temple has been removed. Northwest of the temple the excavation of a line of mounds marking a rampart brought to light the remains of a solid brick wall, 52 feet thick and of unknown height, resting on a foundation of solid clay mixed with soil and puddled down-the work of Naram-Sin. A similar wall, of half the thickness of this one, was found at Tello by M. de Sarzec. Southeast of the great tower and close to the rampart was a chamber about 36 feet long and 12 feet wide, without a doorway and therefore supposed to have been entered from above, its floor resting upon the platform of Naram-Sin, which was built by Ur Gur. Beneath it was another chamber similar to it, the relics in which showed it to be the temple-archive chamber of Sargon. It had been partly restored by Ur Gur, who had also erected the upper chamber for his own archives. This chamber had been rifled some time between the reign of Ur Gur, 2800 B. C., and the rise of the Kassite dynasty, 2200 B. C., and the pillaging is supposed to have taken place during the Elamite invasion, 2285 b. c. The excavations were continued by Mr. Haynes to virgin soil, 30 feet farther down, through the débris of ruined buildings, accumulations of broken pottery, and fragments of inscribed stone objects and well-constructed drains. These remains proved the existence of at least two temples beneath the pavement of Naram-Sin. These strata had been disturbed and the buildings pillaged, but much remained to cast light upon earlier phases of Babylonian civilization than had been opened to us before. An altar of sun-dried brick, about 13 feet by 8, had a rim of bitumen around its upper course, and a large deposit of white ashes on its top. Around it was a low wall marking the sacred inclosure, and outside of this were two large vases of terra cotta, decorated with rope pattern. Southeast of the altar was a brick platform, about 23 feet square and 11 feet high, built of fine unbaked bricks, round the base of which were water vents, leading to a drain passing underneath the platform, in the roof of which was the earliest known keystone arch.

More than 26,000 tablets and numerous inscribed fragments of vases and stela were received from this site, a considerable number of them of the period previous to Sargon. Among them were broken vases and other objects, many of them of the most archaic type, that had been votive offerings to the shrine of Mullil from the earliest time. A stone bowlder, inscribed with a lineal inscription of a king named Lugal Kigub Nidudu, bore a second indorsement by Sargon in arrow-headed characters. Among the broken fragments were pieces of more than a hundred vases dedicated to the temple by a king named Lugal-Zaggi-si, from which Prof. Hilprecht has constructed a complete text of 120 lines. Fragments of similar verses were found beneath the Sargonide pavement. When examined along with the earliest monuments from Tello the inscriptions were found to form a complete historical series relating to affairs of which no mention is found in the annals of Sargon or after. They relate to a series of primitive wars, and form certainly, whatever their age may be, the earliest historical record known. The earliest of them is the inscription, written in most archaic character, of Eshagsagana, who is styled "Lord of Kengi," or Lower Babylonia, "the land of channels and reeds." It describes a war against the city of Kish, the modern El Hymer, whose priest ruler had entered into alliance with tribes called “ the hosts of the Land of the Bow," and describes how

the Babylonians "conquered the King of Kish and his ally," the evil-hearted "horde of the Land of the Bow," spoiled his city and burned his property, carrying away the statue of the king, his bright silver, and his furniture which he dedicated to Mullil. The next inscription in the sequence records the conquest of Babylonia by the king of the "hordes of the Bow." It shows that the victor had established himself in the ancient capital of Erech, and that he ruled in Ur-Larsa as well, describing his empire as extending from the Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates to the Upper Sea (Mediterranean), and asserting “ dominion over all lands from the rising to the setting of the sun, whom he has caused to dwell in peace." This foreign dynasty was followed by one whose capital was Ur or Mughier. The identification of the people of the Land of the Bow ” has not been determined. Αl. though Prof. Hilprecht's estimate that these relics date from a period three or four thousand years earlier than the time of Sargon is regarded by many scholars as exaggerated, no doubt is entertained that they are of much higher antiquity than any Babylonian records previously recovered.

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Egypt. Tombs of an Early Dynasty.The earliest remains yet found in Egypt have been discovered by M. Jacques de Morgan, Director General of Antiquities, in the region of Abydos, the capital of the first dynasty. In the course of the excavation flint arrowheads of extremely ancient pattern, sickles, saws, and figures of fishes, birds, and insects in slate were found. In a mound of peculiar shape not far from Negada the excavators came upon a tomb, whence passages led, with rows of columns, their walls covered with antique hieroglyphic inscriptions and bas-reliefs. Twenty-one rooms were opened, each containing a sarcophagus, of which the largest and central room had one larger than the others, resting upon a pedestal of solid rock. Around it were forms of fishes and dogs crudely carved in ivory; near the feet were the remains apparently of a lion, composed of pieces of ivory; and at its head and facing it was a life-sized figure of a man carved in wood. The sides of the room were covered with inscriptions of so remote a date that they could not be interpreted. Within the sarcophagus was a mummy case covered with hieroglyphics. The ceilings of the passageways were lined with bricks-probably sun-dried-of coarse workmanship, and the floors were of granite. The walls in many places were in so crumbled a condition that parts of the inscriptions were obliterated. Urns were found in all the rooms tightly closed and bearing on their tops the "banner name" or seal of the king. The royal names on the sarcophagi consisted of a few signs, not written in cartouches, but inscribed in squares similar to the banner names on the vases. The seals on the vases in the king's chamber were different from the usual Egyptian seals in being made from cylinders and not from scarabs. The chief sarcophagus, after having been opened, was closed and sealed for removal to Gizeh, where the body is to be unwrapped. The other sarcophagi are also to be taken to Gizeh and opened. The tomb is supposed to be of as early date as the first dynasty.

Sayings of Jesus.-A large store of papyri has been discovered by Messrs. B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt in the ground at Behnesa. The find is described as appearing as if the shelves of a library had been emptied on the ground and then spaded over and lost to view. The papyri include contracts, wills, accounts, and other public and private documents, dating between the first and ninth centuries of the Christian era; portions of the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and Thucydides, and fragments of early copies of the New Testa

ment in Greek. The document which has aroused the most interest is the one called the Logia, or sayings of Christ, a fragment 4 by 34 inches in diameter, and containing 8 sayings of Jesus, each beginning with the words, "Jesus saith." The fragment is marked with the number 11, leaving it to be presumed that it is a part of a larger collection. The following is the Greek text of the Logia: 1. . . . καὶ τότε διαβλέψεις ἐκβαλεῖν τὸ κάρφος τὸ ἐν τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σοῦ.

2. Λέγει Ἰησοῦς· Ἐὰν μὴ νηστεύσητε τὸν κόσμον οὐ μὴ εὑρήσετε τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ· καὶ 'εὰν μὴ σαββατίσητε τὸν σάββατον οὐκ ὀψέσθε τὸν Πατέρα.

3. Λέγει Ἰησοῦς· Εστην ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ κόσμου, καὶ ἐν

σαρκί ὤφθην αὐτοῖς, καὶ εὕρον πάντας μεθύοντας, καὶ οὐδενα εὕρον διψῶντα ἐν αὐτοῖς· καὶ πονεῖ ἡ ψυχή μοῦ επὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὅτι τυφλοί εἰσιν ἐν τῇ καρδια aÙTŵv.

4. [.. ] [ . τ] ἣν πτωχείαν.

....

. •

5. Λέγει Ἰησοῦς· “Οπου εάν ὦσιν [gap] θεοὶ καὶ τῷ [gap] ἐσμεν μόνος, τῷ ἐγώ εἰμι μετ ̓ αὐτῶν. Ἔγειρον τὸν λίθον, καὶ ἐκεῖ εὑρήσεις μέ· σχίσον τὸ ξύλον, καὶ ἐγὼ ἐκεῖ ei.

6. Λέγει Ιησούς· Οὐκ ἔστιν δεκτὸς προφήτης ἐν τῇ πατρίδι αὐτοῦ, οὐδὲ ἰατρὸς ποίει θεραπείας εἰς τοῖς γινώσ κοντας αὐτοῦ.

7. Λέγει Ἰησοῦς· Πόλις οἰκοδομουμένη ἐπ' ἄκρον ὄρους ύψηλόν καὶ ἐστηριγμένη, οὔτε πεσεῖν δύναται οὔτε κρυ

βῆναι.

The eighth saying is illegible.

These lines have been translated to read: "1. And then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.

"2. Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in no wise find the kingdom of God, and except ye keep the Sabbath, ye shall not see the Father.

"3. Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the flesh was I one of them, and I found all men drunken, and none found I athirst among them, and my soul grieveth over the souls of men, because they are blind in their heart. . . . "4. . . . Poverty

"5. Jesus saith, Wherever there are . . . and there is one . . . alone I am with him. Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me, cleave the wood and there am I.

"6. Jesus saith, A prophet is not acceptable in his own country, neither doth a physician work cures upon them that know him.

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7. Jesus saith, A city built upon the top of a high hill, and stablished, can neither fall nor be hid."

A Depository of Hebrew Manuscripts.-The genizah, or treasure house, of an ancient synagogue in Cairo, as described by Dr. S. Schlechter, is a room at the end of the gallery, without doors or windows, and entered through a hole reached by a ladder. In it were deposited, in obedience to the injunction that none of the sacred books should be destroyed, not only castaway copies of those works, but also in the course of time Hebrew writings of many kinds. The collection made by Dr. Schlechter from one of these depositories and presented to the University of Cambridge embraces numerous copies of the Old Testament and parts and of liturgies, going as far back as the tenth century. These fragments, though they offer no textual variations of importance, are of interest from the marginal glosses or Chaldaic and Arabic versions they contain, and on account of specimens of old forms of writing and punctuation, differing from both the Eastern and Western styles. Next to these

are fragments of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, which are of great importance as furnishing a new class of manuscripts and restoring parts of old rabbinic works long ago given up as lost. Both Bibles and Talmud are accompanied by numerous commentaries and subcommentaries in Hebrew and Aramaic. Further are large quantities of autograph documents, dated from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries, with hymns, legal papers, letters, prescriptions, and fragments of miscellane

ous works.

A Scepter of the Eighteenth Dynasty.-A colossal scepter, recovered by Prof. Petrie from the remains of a temple of Set at Nubt, near Nagada, has been presented to the British Museum. It was broken into many pieces, which were thought at first to belong to different objects, but were afterward found to form parts of a whole. Several pieces are still missing, but the general structure of the object is clearly defined. The shaft is 5 feet high and 6 inches in diameter, with the upper part curved and terminating in a head which is supposed to be of Set, and which, being 2 feet long, gives a total height of 7 feet. The shaft is inscribed in fine characters, with cartouches of Amenhotep II, of the eighteenth dynasty-all burned in dark glaze into the white, sandy grit of the paste of which the object is composed, and fired with a rich blue glaze. An important part of the inscription was found to be in a private collection, and has been presented to the museum to accompany the rest.

Antiquities of El Kab.-Writing of his last season's work at El Kab, in which he was assisted by Mr. Quibell, Mr. Somers Clarke observes that while it is no doubt true, that so far as we can tell by inscriptions the tomb of Sebeknekht is the oldest of the rock tombs there, it is hardly probable that there may not have been others older than it. Buried beneath the slope of sand that lies against the north side of the great wall were found several mastabas of brick with paneled sides; bowls of diorite two bearing the name of Senefru-were with other things in the wells. Staircase tombs were also found similar to those at Nagada, a number of Libyan burials, also a cemetery of the twelfth dynasty, part of it outside the great wall and part within. The remains of mastabas similar to those found outside and of the same period were found inside the inclosure. The wall was evidently built regardless of the ancient sanctuaries. The date of the great wall has not been determined. While, the inscriptions in the immediate neighborhood had already demonstrated the importance of El Kab in the sixth dynasty, the researches have now carried it back to the fourth dynasty, when, judging by the importance of the tombs, it must have been a place of no little consequence.

Stone Implements from Egypt and Somaliland.-A collection of prehistoric flint implements discovered in Egypt by Mr. II. W. Seton Karr in November, 1896, was exhibited in June at the rooms of the Archæological Institute. The mines are situated in the Wady-el-Sheik district, in the eastern desert of Egypt, about 30 miles distant from the Nile. Many of the types of implements are new to science. Only two paleolithic implements of the earliest date were found in this region. Others included in the exhibition came from Abydos, Nagada, Nagh Hamdi, Thebes, and other places in the western desert. At some of the mines are shafts about two feet in diameter, filled up with drifted sand, and surrounded by masses of excavated rock neatly arranged. There was usually a central work place where most of the objects were discovered. In some mines a number of clubs or truncheons lay distributed uniformly as though hurriedly

left when the quarries were abandoned. Other implements-of flint and quartzite--are from Somaliland. They were found on a long low hill about 100 miles from the coast. The country around was of limestone, in some places overflowed by lava, and the implements lay in ones, twos, and threes. Sir John Evans wrote to the Royal Society that these discoveries “have an important bearing on the question of the original home of the human race. Of their identity in form with some from the valley of the Somme and other places there can be no doubt, and we need not hesitate in claiming them as paleolithic.'

The question of the origin of the Egyptian race is discussed by M. le Vicomte J. de Rouge in the "Bulletin et Memoirs de la Société des Antiquaires de France." Three theories have been suggested on the subject: 1, That the Egyptians came from Asia through the isthmus of Suez; 2, that they came, partly from Asia, through Ethiopia: and 3, that the majority of them originated in Africa and passed into Egypt by the west and southwest. M. de Rouge cites reasons, based on the later excavations in Babylonia and the comparison of the remains of the earliest known Egyptian art with the probably still earlier remains recently found there, for believing that Egyptian civilization was derived directly from Babylonia.

Historical Value of Mr. Petrie's Discoveries. Prof. Petrie spoke at the annual meeting of the Egypt Exploration Fund, Nov. 10, of the results of his labors among tombs of the fifth dynasty at Deshasheh as being of the greatest interest for the early history of Egypt. From the mass of bones he had now collected they had, for the first time, an insight into the great question of the populations of the country. They could now definitely say that there was no clear change during three or four thousand years, and that a distance of 50 miles made more difference in the type than a lapse of four thousand years in one place. They had the fortune to find a group of statues of the fifth dynasty, and to bring to England one of the two best, which was far the finest piece of Egyptian statuary that had ever reached that country.

Algeria. Mussulman Ruins of Kalaa.-M. Blanchet, working under the Archæological Society of Constantine, Algeria, reports the discovery of the Mussulman city which was in the eleventh century the capital of northern Africa-the Kalaa of Beni Hammad. This city, which once had 80,000 inhabitants, is now covered with grain fields, and to reach it the traveler has to ride seven hours among the mountains. Many archeologists have passed within a few miles of it without suspecting its existence. M. Blanchet has exhumed on the site a mosque of about 200 by 180 feet dimensions, covered with green emeralds and sustained by columns of rose marble; a palace; a public fountain; a castle imposingly situated on the top of a rock and flanked by towers, the least ruined of which was about 45 feet high. The discovery derives additional interest from the fact that no Mussulman ruin of the epoch of this one was known to exist in Algeria. The monuments of Tlemeen were built in the twelfth century; those of Kalaa date from 1007. A new chapter in the history of art has thus been revealed to us.

India. Ruins of Dimāpūt.—The ruins of Dimaput in Assam consist of a number of tanks, large quantities of broken pottery, and a number of carved speckled gray sandstones, inclosed in an area about a mile square by a brick wall of later building, with a moat and a gate. Dimāpūt was sacked by the Ahōms in 1535, and has been uninhabited since, while a dense jungle has grown up all over the upper valley of the Dhunsiri. The

The estimated expenditure of all the provinces for 1894 was $30,312,519. The revenue of the province of Buenos Ayres in 1895 was $13,125,667, and the expenditure $12,881,551. The total amount of the provincial debts in 1895 was $137,261,866 in gold, including arrears of interest. The aggregate debt of the municipalities is $24,596,422. In 1896 Congress passed an act for the unification of the national and provincial external debts. The settlement of the railroad guarantees was also approved, and bonds were issued and accepted by the companies in satisfaction of all claims against the Government, excepting two companies that refused to agree to the arrangement.

The debts of the Federal Government at the beginning of 1896 amounted to £78,483,515 sterling, consisting of £55,519,123 of external loans, an internal debt of $91,883,031 in gold, equal to £18,230.700, and one of $83,502,338 in paper, equal to £4,733,692. This does not include floating liabilities, reported to amount to $1,370,000 in gold and $9,020,000 in paper on Dec. 31, 1895. The debt charge for the fiscal year 1895 was $13,846,322 in paper and $1,478,311 in gold. The state debts amount to $28,000,000.

The new national bank, opened on Dec. 1, 1891, after the old one went into liquidation, has 62 branches, with a total invested capital of $51,987,366 of paper and $58,961 of gold on April 1, 1895. Its note circulation on Aug. 31, 1896, amounted to $46,000,000, the guaranteed notes of the national banks to $117,046,150, those of the Central National Bank in liquidation to $90,019,533, those of the Banco Hipotecario to $30,000,000, and those of smaller institutions and of the municipality of Buenos Ayres brought the total of the paper currency in circulation up to $296,737,023, according to the report of the Caja de Conversion. The amount of notes redeemed in the year 1894 was $8,000,394.

The Army and Navy.-The regular army consisted of 1,659 officers and 10,404 men in 1895. The Government proposed in 1896 to bring the effective up to 15,302 men. The National Guard has about 480,000 men enrolled. The younger members receive a brief military training, being called into camp when first inscribed, at the age of twenty, and drilled for sixty days. The rest of the National Guard is drilled on Sundays for two months of each year. The navy is one of the strongest in South America. The English-built armored cruiser "Almirante Brown," of 4,200 tons, protected by 9-inch steelfaced armor, carried 8 12-ton Armstrong guns. The first-class cruisers "San Martin" and "Varesa were purchased from Italy. The Nueve de Julio," a cruiser of 3,575 tons displacement, armed with 4 6-inch and 8 4.7-inch quick-firing guns and 24 Hotchkiss guns, has made 219 knots with natural draught. The ram cruisers "Libertad" and "Independencia," launched in England in 1890 and 1891, are powerfully armed and well protected for their size-2,500 tons-each carrying 2 94-inch Krupps, mounted to fire at an angle of 40°, and 4 47-inch quick-firing Armstrongs and having 8 inch plates on the sides and on the barbettes. The powerfully armed torpedo gunboat “Patria," built to replace the lost "Rosales," has made 205 knots with forced draught. The smaller Aurora" has a speed of 18.5 knots. The new protected cruiser "Buenos Aires," of 4,500 tons displacement and 14,000 horse power, made the extraordinary speed at her trial of 23.2 knots. Her armament consists of 2 8-inch, 4 6-inch, 6 4-7-inch, 16 3-pounders and 8 1-pounder guns. The "25 de Mayo" is a powerful second-class cruiser. Of third-class cruisers there are 6, and the torpedo fleet consists of 10 first-class and 4 third-class boats. Four destroyers

designed for a speed of 26 knots are being built in England. Two old monitors serve for harbor defense.

Commerce and Production.-The imports of merchandise in 1895 amounted to $94,856,000 and the exports to $118,937,000, gold value. The values of the various classes of imports were: Textiles and wearing apparel, $37,304,411; articles of food, $11,543,370; iron and manufactures thereof, $9,800,565; beverages, $8,798.254; timber and manufactures of wood, $3,812,243; railroad material, etc., $1,922,179; paper and paper manufactures, $2,236,949; various metals, $1,430,009; pottery and glass, $2,256,423; chemicals, $4,830,067; coal and oil, $6,306,834; miscellaneous, $2,158,574. Of the total exports $74.629,876 were animals and animal produce, $39,100,000 agricultural produce, $2,348,012 manufactures, $338,982 mineral products, and $358,554 miscellaneous products. The quantity of wool exported was 201,353 tons, having increased in two years from 123,230 tons; of sheepskins, 33,664 tons, compared with 25,569 tons in 1893; of wheat, 1,010,269 tons; of corn, 772,318 tons, against 54,876 tons in the preceding year; of meat, 99,757 tons, increasing from 68,371 tons in 1893 and 80,000 tons in 1894.

The imports of coin and bullion in 1895 were $4,723,333; exports, $118,275. In 1896 the imports of specie were $6,000,000 and the exports $2,000,000. The average rate of exchange was 296, against 343 in 1895. The total gold value of imports in 1896 was $112,000,000, and of exports $116,000,000. The value of the commerce with each of the principal foreign countries in 1894 is shown in the following table:

Only 15,000,000 acres out of 240,000,000 acres of cultivable land was actually under cultivation in 1895. There were 5,500,000 acres under wheat, yielding 1,400,000 tons in 1896. Corn is grown extensively, and a considerable area is devoted to raising flax. The sugar plantations cover 82,000 acres in the north, yielding 120,000 tons in 1896. The area of vineyards was 71,135 acres in 1895, when the wine crop was 42,267,200 gallons. There were 4,447,000 horses, 21,702,000 cattle, 74,380,000 sheep, and 3,885,000 goats and other animals in 1895. The number of cattle slaughtered in 1895 was 1,954,800, and in 1896 there were 1,204,288 slaughtered from the pampas of the Argentine Republic, Uruguay, and the southern province of Brazil. The Argentine saladeros slaughtered 733,660 head in 1895 and 367,230 head in 1896.

Navigation. During 1895 there were 6,496 steamers, of 5,461,468 tons, and 3,382 sailing vessels, of 785,633 tons, entered from foreign ports. About 86 per cent. of the import trade and 51 per cent. of the export trade passes through the port at Buenos Ayres. The mercantile navy of the republic in 1895 comprised 75 steamers, of 21,613 tons capacity, and 125 sailing vessels, of 28,241 tons.

Communications.-The length of railroads in operation in 1895 was 8,766 miles. The capital expenditure up to 1896 was $466,016,879. The gross earnings in 1895 were $26,394,306, and expenses $13,846,464. Of the total capital outlay, $42,426,297 were expended by the Federal Government on the Government lines, $111,393,069 by companies on guaranteed lines, $229,159,165 by companies