CHAPTER XXIV 



WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG 



Sir Arthur Smith Woodward Investigates the 



Remote Past 



SOME thirty years ago there was serious trouble 

 between the Argentine Republic and Chile. It was 

 the usual South American quarrel over the question 

 of boundaries, and the two countries were very near to 

 war when some one had the good sense to suggest that 

 it might be better to ask King Edward to act as arbiter. 

 Both countries agreed, and a Commission was appointed 

 to examine the boundaries before going to England to 

 put the case before King Edward. 



One of the Argentine Commissioners was a Sefior 

 Moreno, a wealthy man who was also a very keen scien- 

 tist. He had already founded a museum at La Plata, 

 which has since been handed over to the State ; it is said 

 to be the best of its kind in South America. 



Now the boundary-line of the two countries runs down 

 to the very end of South America, through wild and little- 

 known Patagonia, and while Moreno was exploring he 

 came upon a rancho near the south coast at a place which 

 bore the rather sinister name of Ultima Esperanza 

 (" Last Hope "). There Moreno put up for a day or two, 

 and one of the first things he noticed was a great slab of 

 thick skin hung up in a tree near the house. 



Most people would doubtless have taken it for an ox- 

 hide, for in Patagonia the nearest tree is used as a larder 

 where the meat is hung, but, luckily for Science, Moreno 

 saw at once that this was not an ox-hide, but something 

 very different. He examined it and saw that it was very 



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