RIO CUARTO  , a

town of Argentina in the province of Cordoba, 119 M . S. of the city of that name, and about 500 M . N.W. of Buenos Aires . Pop . (1904, estimate) 12,000 . It stands 1440 ft. above sea-level and about half-way across the great Argentine pampas, on the banks of a river of the same name which finds an outlet through the Carcaranal into the Parana near Rosario . The town is built on the open plain and is surrounded with attractive suburbs . It is the commercial centre of a large district and has a large and lucrative trade . Its geographical position gives it great strategical importance, and the government maintains here a large arsenal and a garrison of the regular army . The surrounding country belongs to the partially arid pampa region and is devoted to stockraising—cattle, horses, sheep and goats . Irrigation is employed in its immediate vicinity . Previous to 1892 this region was overrun by the Ranqueles, a warlike tribe of Indians, hut the vigorous reprisals of General Ivanovski in that year, supplemented by the tactful intervention of the Franciscan missionaries, who have a convent in this town, put an end to these hostile forays and gave full opportunity for the industrial development of the country .

There are some manufacturing

industries in the town . The National Andine railway passes through Rio Cuarto, and branch lines connect with the Buenos Aires and Pacific line—all of which give railway communication with Buenos Aires, Rosario, Tucuman, . Cordoba, San Luis and Mendoza .