TIic Butter fiics oj Chile. 269 



the beautiful Lake of Alumine, one of the long line of lakes 

 which are found mostly on the east side of the watershed, and 

 which form the head- waters of many rivers, some of which 

 run to the Pacific and some to the Rio Negro, and which 

 are in the frontier region, of which parts were in dispute. 

 This country has been described by Senor Moreno.* From 

 here ray route southwards for three weeks lay through 

 Argentine territory, but I soon realized that there is no 

 well-marked natural boundary between Chile and Argen- 

 tina in this latitude, and that the influence of the rainfall, 

 which rapidly becomes less when the watershed is crossed, 

 is the real factor in determining the boundary between the 

 wet sub-evergreen forest which clothes the western slopes 

 of the mountains, and the dry grassy hills and valleys on 

 the east, which gradually fall away into the great arid 

 pampas of Patagonia that now form part of the Argentine 

 territory of Neuquen. 



It also became evident that nearly all the mountain 

 and forest species of butterflies which hitherto have been 

 considered peculiar to Chile occur in Argentine territory as 

 well, and that there are few species peculiar to the pampas 

 in the country which I passed through. 



On reaching Lake Quillen in lat. 41 S. I made an 

 attempt to re-cross into Chile by a track which formerly 

 existed through the forest to Villarica, but it had become so 

 much blocked by fallen trees that we could not get through, 

 and after two days in the forest I turned south from Lake 

 Quilloi, crossing a pass over a lateral ridge about 6000 feet 

 high to Junin de Los Andes, where an attempt has been 

 made to found a frontier town in a very sparsely inhabited 

 but fine cattle-ranching country. Up till now the weather 

 had been splendid, too hot for comfort in the middle of the 

 day, when high wind from the south usually prevailed, but 

 now we had a spell of bad weather which very much 

 hindered my collecting. At San Martin on Lake Lacar 

 we found a military settlement commanded by Col. Perez, 

 from whom, as well as from the other officers of the 3rd 

 Argentine Cavalry, we had a most hospitable reception. 

 This would be a good collecting station, as, though the 

 elevation is under 3000 feet, there is a heavy snowfall in 

 winter and a rich forest vegetation on the shores of the 

 lake, whilst a range of mountains about 7500 feet high, 



* Notes preliminaires sur une excursion aux territoires du Neuquen 

 Rio Negro, etc., de Francisco P. Moreno. Musee de la Plata, 1898. 



