Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/374

352 PATAGONIA See Plate PATAGONIA, in the widest application of the name, XI. vol. i. i s that portion of South America which, to the east of the Andes, lies south of Rio Negro (mouth in 41 5 S. lat.), and, to the west of the Andes, south of the Chilian pro vince of Chiloe, 1 with a total area of 322,550 square miles (306,475 continental, 16,075 insular) according to Dr E. Wisotzki s measurement (Behm and Wagner, Bevtilkerung dtr Erde, 1880). By the treaty of 22d October 1881 this vast region was divided between Chili and the Argen tine Republic, the boundary being the unexplored water shed of the Andes down to 52 S. lat., and then con tinuing along the parallel to 70 W. long., thence to Point Dungeness, and so southwards (through Tierra del Fuego) along the meridian of 68 34 W. long.- In this way about 62,930 of the 322,550 square miles fall to Chili and 259,620 to the Argentine Republic. 3 The Chilian portion, the main bulk of which is com prised under the title of Magellan Territory (Territorio Jfagallanes), is chiefly remarkable for the way in which the combined action of glacier and sea has cut up the country into a multitude of rugged and irregular islands and peninsulas, separated by intricate channels and fjords. South of Chiloe, the first great island of the Chilian coast, the islands are grouped under the name of the Chonos Archipelago, which is bounded on the south by the spacious Gulf of Peiias. The Chonos Islands (upwards of 1000 in number, without counting mere islets and rocks) are with out exception mountainous, and in some cases the summits remain white throughout the year, though in the lowlands snow lies only a few days. The general temperature is remarkably even. A thick covering of vegetation (low and stunted on the seaward parts) is spread over nearly all the surface, but the layer of vegetable soil is very thin. Potatoes grow wild, and cabbage, onions, radish, &c., are cultivated. The sea-elephant appears to be exterminated ; seals still abound. On Taytao peninsula is found the pudu, the. smallest known deer. The old Indian inhabit ants Chonos are practically extinct, though their sitting mummies give name to Momias Bay, and they still occupy some of the islands far south near Magellan s Strait. There are only one or two permanent settlements in the whole archipelago on the Guaitecas Islands (43 52 S. lat.) and at Puerto Americano or Tangbac (45 S. lat.). Wood cutters, however, visit the islands in considerable numbers for the sake of their valuable timber, mainly cipre (Libo- cedrus tetragona). Besides Magdalena which is by far the largest of the whole group and contains the extinct volcano of Motalat, 5400 feet high it is enough to men tion Chaffers, Forsyth, Johnson, Tahuenahuec, Narborough (named after the old English explorer), Stokes, Benja min, James, Melchor, Victoria, Luz, and Rivero Islands. The broad Moraleda Channel, from 75 to 175 fathoms deep, which may be said to separate the rest of the archipelago from Magdalena and the mainland, is continued south by the Costa and Elefantes Channels, and would have proved of great service to navigation had it not been that the southern exit is barred by the narrow isthmus of Ofqui, which alone prevents the strangely formed Taytao peninsula from being an island. The glacier of San Rafael, which discharges into the lagoon of the same name on the north side of the isthmus, is nearer the equator than any other coast-glacier in the world. 4 1 Chiloe is sometimes considered part of Patagonia. 2 Of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago 20,341 square miles are Chilian and 7890 Argentine. 3 Documents in regard to the disputed possession will he found in Qnesada, La Patagonia y las Tierras Australes, Buenos Ayres, 1875. By a treaty in 1856 the i/ti possidetis of 1810 was accepted. 4 The Chonos Archipelago was explored by E. Simpson of the Chilian navy in 1871-72. See map and text in Petermann s Miltheil., 1878. South of the Gulf of Peiias a navigable channel exists between the mainland and the long succession of islands which, under the names of Wellington Island (150 miles long), Madre de Dios Archipelago, Hanover Island, and Queen Adelaide Archipelago, extend for about 400 miles to the mouth of Magellan s Strait ; and it is now regularly used by steamers, which are thus protected from the terrible western storms that make the deep-sea pass age along this coast so dangerous. At one or two points only is the navigation difficult at the English Narrows in Messier Channel (as the northern division is called), and at the Guia Narrows farther south. The scenery throughout is of the most beautiful and picturesque de scription. Among the serviceable inlets are Connor Cove, Port Grappler, Puerto Bueno (pointed out by Sarmiento), and Isthmus Harbour. 5 The southern coast of Patagonia is bounded for 365 miles by Magellan s Strait, 6 which separates the mainland from the countless islands of the Tierra del Fuego archi pelago and breaks it up into a number of very irregular peninsulas. Of these the largest are King William IV. Land and Brunswick Peninsula, and between them lies the extensive inlet of Otway Water, which is further con nected westward by Fitzroy Channel with Skyring Water. On the east coast of Brunswick Peninsula, opposite the Broad Reach of the strait, and in the finest part of the straitward district, lies the Chilian military post and penal settlement of Punta Arenas or Sandy Point. It was founded in 1851 as a substitute for the unfortunate Port Famine settlement, which lay farther south on the same coast. In spite of convict mutinies (as in 1878) and the questionable character of many of the settlers (chiefly Chilotes), Punta Arenas begins to flourish; in 1875 its population was 915, and since that date a series of "fac tories " or cattle-stations have been established along the coast to north and ?outh. The country behind the settle ment, unlike the districts at either end of the strait, is well wooded, mainly with Chilian beech (Fayiis antarctica) and Winter s bark (Drimys Winteri, so called after Captain Winter, Drake s companion), and .considerable quantities of timber are exported. Coal also, though of inferior quality, is worked in the neighbourhood. 7 Patagonia east of the Andes is for the most part a region of vast steppe -like plains. Unlike the pampas of the Argentine Republic, with which it is conterminous on the north, it rises in a succession of abrupt steps or terraces about 300 feet at a time, and is covered, not with soft stoneless soil, but with an enormous bed of shingle, which instead of luxuriant grass supports, where it is not abso lutely bare, only a thin clothing of coarse and often thorny brushwood and herbage. So peculiar is this, the largest tract of shingle in the world, that from D Orbigny down wards geologists have generally characterized it simply as the Patagonian formation. It is of Tertiary marine origin ; but, whilst Bove makes it correspond to the Miocene sub division, Doering (Roca s expedition) assigns it to the somewhat older Oligocene. Beneath the shingle, which is sometimes at least 200 feet thick, and has its pebbles whitewashed and cemented together by an aluminous substance, there stretches a vast deposit, sometimes more than 800 feet thick, of a soft infusorial stone resem bling chalk. In the hollows of the plain as far south as 5 See Lieut. Eardley- Wilmot, Our Journal in the Pacific, 1873, especially the appendix; and The Voyages of the "Adventure" and the " Bettf/le." 6 Magellan s Strait was first named, probably by its discoverer, Canal de Todos los Santos, and in older writers often appears as Estrecho Patayonico and Estraho de la nave Victoria (Magellan s ship). 7 Punta Arenas was a German station for the observation of the transit of Venus in 1882.