Argentina 129 



that its southern extremity is as near the South Pole 

 as Sitka in Alaska is to the North Pole. The climatic 

 conditions are favorable to the Caucasian race, except 

 in the extreme south and the extreme north. The 

 people of Argentina, like the people of Uruguay, are 

 fond of boasting that theirs is a ''white man's country. ' 

 The climate of Buenos Aires is not unlike that of 

 Jacksonville, Florida. In midwinter, that is to say, 

 in the months of July and August, a little hoar-frost is 

 reported occasionally to have been seen in the suburbs 

 after a cold night, and now and then a few needles of 

 ice form upon shallow pools, but this is very uncommon. 

 Farther south the winters are colder, and the tempera- 

 ture, throughout extensive areas, is much like that of 

 New England and the Middle States, but, owing to 

 the arid nature of much of this region, there has as yet 

 been little effort made to effect settlement, and it is 

 given over almost exclusively to sheep-herders and 

 cattlemen, who wander about from place to place in 

 quest of pasture for their animals. Still farther south, 

 in the region of the Straits of Magellan, the winters are 

 severe, although owing to the proximity of the ocean 

 and the direction of the air-currents, they are not as 

 rigorous as in northern Ontario, and southern Labrador, 

 with which the latitude corresponds. There is an 

 enormous precipitation of moisture in the southernmost 

 part of the land. Snow falls in Tierra del Fuego in 

 every month of the year, and when it is not snowing, 

 it is raining. The skies leak perpetually. This fact 

 has not deterred a few Scotchmen from taking up their 

 abode there, and they are engaged amidst the mists, 

 denser even than those of their own native highlands, 

 in raising sheep, which are reported to do well. 



Topographically Argentina is divided into three 



