Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/723

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 687 000; Spaniards, 30, 000; Irish, 30,000; English and Scotch, 10,000 ; Germans, 10,000 ; other nationalities, 30,000. The number of Italians at present in the province exceeds 60,000, up- ward of 40,000 of whom (or about one fourth of the entire population) are hi the city of Bue- nos Ayres. In the upper provinces there are but few foreigners, Entre-Rios alone excepted, where they are numerous and engaged in all branches of industry. In Santa F6 there are three prosperous colonies. C6rdoba has per- haps 1,500 settlers. The most numerous class of foreigners are Italians, who are in general skilled in the building trades, and have found constant employment in the various splendid buildings erected of late years in Buenos Ayres; many of them are also engaged in market garden- ing. The Genoese are chiefly occupied in river navigation, the monopoly of which is in their hands. Besides this advantage, the crews of the river and coasting crafts have often equal shares in the ventures. The Spaniards present a less striking contrast with the Argentines, the Catalans prospering as wine merchants, the Andalusians as cigar dealers and shop- keepers, while the Galicians perform the du- ties of street porters, night watchmen, and do- mestics. The Basques, after the Italians the most numerous foreign community, are most- ly bricklayers, milkmen, shepherds, saladero peons, &c., though some are rich and at the head of lucrative enterprises. To the Irish is due the development of sheep farming that en- ables the Argentine provinces to rival Australia in the production of wool. Many of them num- ber their acres by thousands, and their flocks by hundreds of thousands. The aggregate number of sheep owned by the Irish is estimated at 30,000,000. Of the French, who are the most equally distributed in the provinces, some are wealthy wine merchants, trading with Bor- deaux, and in general they are found in every branch of commerce, especially the fancy trade, which they monopolize. They assimilate more with the Argentines than do the English and Germans. The English and North Americans are seldom occupied in other than mercantile pursuits. The Argentines (Argentines) are nat- urally active and intelligent. The Gauchos, or horsemen of the plains, are descendants of the Spanish colonists, and many of them have sprung from the best families of the peninsula. They live in rude huts built of mud, and subsist almost entirely on the flesh of oxen and game, both of which abound in the pampas, and are taken with the lazo or the tolas, a missile weapon wielded with astounding dexterity by the Gauchos. Of the Indians, who are chiefly of Araucanian descent, by far the larger num- ber are independent and live in separate tribes, governed each by its cacique. They dwell in tents of hides, and their subsistence consists mainly of maize, which they procure from the whites in exchange for cattle, salt, and blankets made by their women, and of the flesh of mares, these animals never being ridden, but wholly reserved for food. Some Indians are employed as farm laborers. As early as the 16th century missions were established to the east of Cor- rientes by the Jesuits, who did much toward civilizing the Indians ; but after the expulsion of the order from South America, near the close of the 18th century, the natives relapsed gradually into savagism. The coast line of the Argentine Republic, which measures 540 m., is generally low and sandy, and has no very good harbors. The principal port, Buenos Ayres, on the Plata, is 180 m. from the sea, and is difficult of access on account of the shallowness of the river. The only other important ports are Rosario, on the same river, 360 m., and San Nicolas, 310 m. from the sea, and Bahia Blanca and El Carmen on the seaboard. The northern and Andine provinces are for the most part mountainous, being covered with spurs diverg- ing from the Chilian Cordillera. There are no volcanoes in activity ; but signs exist of some extinct, such as that in the vicinity of Jujuy, from which issues every morning a spiral col- umn of dust that extends many miles over the country. The town of Oran, in Jujuy, was overthrown by an earthquake early in 1872. Some peaks of the Despoblado chain in Salta attain a height of 14,000 ft. ; and the culmina- ting point of the Aconquija system, traversing Tucuman and Catamarca, reaches 17,000 ft. at its highest summit. The Cordoba chain, in the province of that name, is divided into two branches, but presents no lofty peaks. Among the mountains of the eastern provinces, the Yerbales in the N. E. of Corrientes are worthy of mention ; and the southern portion of Entre- Rios is bisected by hills of considerable height. With these exceptions, and those of the Volcan, Ventana, and Guamini ranges in the S. E. of Buenos Ayres, this country may be regarded as a vast unbroken plain stretching from the foot of the Andes to the Atlantic and the river Uruguay, and from the Bolivian boundary to the frontier of Patagonia. This plain may be considered as forming two grand regions : one, from the Rio Negro to the Rio Salado, com- prises the pampas ; the other, N. of the Salado and W. of the Paraguay, embraces the desert of the Gran Chaco, which extends, with little in- terruption, far N. of the Bolivian limits. The vast tract of the pampas, over 300,000 sq. m. in area, is itself distinguishable into several subdivisions, differing in climate and products, although under the same parallel. Proceeding from Buenos Ayres, the first of these sub-re- gions presents for nearly 200 m. an alternate growth of clover and thistles; the next a cov- ering of long grass and brilliant flowers, extend- ing without a weed some 400 m. further west- ward ; the third, reaching to the base of the Andes, one continuous grove of shrubs and small evergreen trees, so evenly set that a horseman may gallop at random between them without inconvenience. Change of season brings little variation in the aspect of the two regions last mentioned ; but in the first remarkable