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GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVEPJES IN 1871. 



plies over the vast pampas where three or four 

 years ago only the fierce and savage Indian 

 tribes and the half - civilized gnacho held 

 sway, and human life was in constant peril. 

 Railroads are now in progress to the remotest 

 provinces, and the effort is being made to con- 

 nect the railroad system of the confederation 

 with that of Chili. A few years of such reso- 

 lute progress and improvement will place the 

 Argentine Confederation in the front rank of 

 the South American states. 



We have nothing of geographical interest to 

 report from Chili, except a new and appar- 



ently more minutely accurate measurement of 

 the height, and calculation of the latitude and 

 longitude of the principal summits and moun- 

 tain-passes of the Chilenian Andes south of 32 

 south latitude. We doubt if, in our time, the 

 vexed question of the height of some of these 

 summits will ever be definitively settled ; but 

 these tables, prepared by Prof. E. Rossetti, an 

 Italian geographer and civil engineer connected 

 with the trans-Andean railroad surveys in 1870, 

 may be regarded as a nearer approximation 

 to accuracy than any of those which have pre- 

 ceded them : 



Lieutenant George Chaworth Musters, of the 

 Royal Navy of Great Britain, during the year 

 1870, explored very thoroughly the whole of 

 Patagonia, traversing its entire length from 

 south to north, and becoming familiar with 

 the numbers, habits, customs, and religion of 

 the Tehuelches, the only tribe inhabiting Pata- 

 gonia proper, and early in 1872 published a 

 very interesting account of his observations. 

 He estimates the entire number of the Te- 

 huelches as not over 3,500, of whom 560 are 

 fighting-men. The Pehuelches, the tribe liv- 

 ing north of the Rio Negro, and differing from 

 the Tehuelches in language, religion, and cus- 



toms, though bearing some resemblance to 

 them in stature and appearance, number about 

 as many more. The Tehuelches are of good 

 stature, though not so gigantic as they have 

 been represented. The average height is five 

 feet ten inches or thereabouts, but they are 

 remarkable for the breadth of their chests and 

 shoulders, and for great muscular power in 

 the arms, and in these respects the women 

 are nearly equal to the men. The country 

 abounds in game : the guanaco, tbe American 

 ostrich, and the puma or tiger-cat, are the largest 

 wild animals, and their flesh is the principal 

 food of the natives, who catch them with the 



