481 



ARGAMASILLA. 



ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION. 



462 



ARGAMASILLA. [MAJICHA.] 



ARGANDA. [CASTILLA LA NUEVA.] 



ARGENTAN. [ORNE.] 



ARGENTEUIL. [SEIXE-ET-OISE.] 



ARGENTIE'RA, the ancient Kimolos, an island in the Archipelago, 

 lies to the north-east of Milo, from which it is separated by a narrow 

 strait, only half a mile in breadth. The length of the island is 5 miles, 

 its breadth 8J miles. One small village, standing on an eminence at 

 the south-east side of the island, in 36 48' N. lat., 24 35' E. long., 

 consists of only a few miserable huts : the population of the island is 

 about 1200. There are some hot springs in this island, like those in 

 Milo. The soil is dry and barren, but produces in the valleys some 

 corn, figs, and grapes. The island was celebrated in ancient times for 

 its fuller's earth, a sort of white clay or chalk, which covers nearly 

 the whole surface. On the south-western coast, covering an islet 

 called Agios Andreas, or St. Andrew (which however in ancient times 

 was a promontory connected with the island by an isthmus), are 

 remains of the ancient town. The island generally is high ; the hills 

 rise to an elevation of 800 to 1000 feet. 



ARGENTIE'RE, L'. [ALPES, HAUTES.] 



ARGENTIE'RE, L'. [ARDiCHE.] 



ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION. The thirteen provinces of the 

 Rio de la Plata which constitute the Argentine Confederation, also 

 frequently called the 'Argentine Republic' (Republica Argentina), 

 comprehend a large part of the surface of South America. The river 

 Cusu Leubu, or Rio Negro, has been fixed as their southern boundary : 

 the mouth of this river is near 41 S. lat. On the north, where the 

 territory borders on Bolivia, the parallel of 22 8. lat. chiefly consti- 

 tutes the boundary-line. Thus the country extends from 41 to 22" 

 8. lat., a distance of 1320 miles in a straight line. On the west the 

 highest part of the Andes divides it from Chili and the Bolivian pro- 

 vince of Atacama ; and on the east it is separated from Paraguay by 

 the course of tho Uio Paraguay, ayd from Brazil and Banda Oriental 

 (Uraguay) by the Rio Uraguay. On the east the boundary-line lies 

 near 68 W. long., except a comparatively narrow tract, which projects 

 between the Paranct and Uraguay as far as 54 40' W. long. On the 

 we:rt the boundary-line, at its extreme south-west angle, is in 71 46' 

 W. long. ; south of 30 S. lat. it is near 70 W. long. ; but farther north 

 it declines to the east, and nt the north-western corner of the country 

 it coincides with 68 W. long. The average width is about 620 miles. 

 The whole surface is calculated to be 726,000 square miles, or nearly 

 three times and a half the extent of France, and nearly six times and 

 a half that of the British Islands, while the population, including the 

 Indians, is under 900,000. 



Coatt-line, Ifarbourt, <tc. Along the oestuary of the Plata there are 

 no harbours, and the Argentine shore is shallow and much encumbered 

 with shoals. Ships drawing 20 feet of water can ascend the Plata to 

 Buenos Ay res, but it is seldom that vessels drawing more than 16 feet 

 proceed nearer than within about seven miles of the city. Smaller 

 vessels enter the inner roads, but they usually anchor between two 

 and three miles from the city. [Rio DE LA PLATA.] The sea-coast 

 belongs wholly to the province of Buenos Ayres ; in describing it we 

 follow generally Capt. R. Fitzro/s ' Bailing Directions for South 

 America,' published by the Board of Admiralty, compared with the 

 notices of the coast in the ' Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of Her 

 Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle,' and the works named at the end 

 of this article. From Pietras Point, at the mouth of the Plata, to the 

 Babia Blanca, the coast presents to the Atlantic a generally convex 

 form, and is chiefly composed of vast sand-dunes ranging parallel to 

 the shore, or of low horizontal cliffs. Thence to the Rio Negro, which 

 in the southern boundary of the territory, the shore is more broken, 

 and runs In a direction south by west. This sea-coast as far as Bahia 

 Blanca is also ill provided with harbours. Pietras Point, which marks 

 the opening of the Plata, is low, ill-defined, and difficult to recognise. 

 The land is nearly flat, nowhere rising above 20 feet from the sea level, 

 while the few stunted trees which grow about here are some little 

 distance inland. South and south-cast of the point is a large and 

 dangerous shoal known as Pietras Bank. South of Pietras Point tlie 

 shore curves inward so as to form Sauborombon Bay, a spacious bay 

 with a soft muddy bottom, and little current at any time. The shore 

 'I this great bay is so flat that Capt. Fitzroy remarks, "it is 

 extremely difficult to say where the water ends, or the coast-line 

 begins." It is consequently very dangerous for a ship to approach 

 the shore, especially as there are sunken ridges of tosca. Two rivers 

 fall into this bay near its centre, the Salado and the Sanborombon. 

 The Salado is a shallow stream with a bar at its mouth, and useless 

 for navigation except for very small vessels ; at times it has six or 

 t'net water on the bar, but at others the smallest boats cannot 

 approach the bar. The Rio Sanbnrombon is rather a wide and deep 

 watercounie than a river ; along its bed a large quantity of water 

 passes in winter, but in summer it in dry. The shore of the bay from 

 Pietras Point to the Salado in uniformly low and flat, and is only 

 diversified with a few stunted trees. On the southern side of the 

 Salado in a rising grrv ! with trees, called Mount Rosas, on 



which and on the bank of tlio Suliuln are a few houses. But south- 

 ward of Mount Rosas to Cape San Antonio, the extremity of the bay, 

 the shore in uniformly low and flat ; and in many places, as near the 

 .1 small stream which connects H'.'V<>rnl inland lakcH, it is u mere 



marsh : farther inshore are thickets which afford shelter to numerous 

 jaguars. At Rasu Point, the northern extremity of Cape San Antonio, 

 the aspect of the land changes. There is here a well-defined though 

 low extent of sand and shingle, and sand-hills occur from 20 to 40 feet 

 in height, reaching at Medanos Point, the southern margin of the 

 cape, to a height of 100 feet. Off this point there stretches seaward 

 an extensive and dangerous shoal called Medanos Back, while inland 

 a range of hills, from 100 to 200 feet high, runs to the north-west. 

 Southward of Medanos Point to the Mai' Chiquito the coast is some- 

 what lower, but similar in appearance to that we have described, 

 sand-dunes with a few patches of verdure being alone visible. The 

 Mar Chiquito is a considerable lagoon of salt-water, into which the 

 Tandil and small rivers flow ; it is separated from the sea by a narrow 

 sandy isthmus, and is said to enter it by a narrow channel, but this 

 appears at least doubtful. Sir Woodbine Parish says this channel 

 appears to be capable of being deepened by artificial means so as to 

 form a harbour for small vessels ; but, as Capt. Fitzroy points out, 

 " great difficulty would be found in attempting to form a large and 

 permanent communication' in a spot so exposed to heavy south-east 

 gales." From this spot to Cape Corrieutes the land is no longer 

 sandy, but rises into a low range of cliffs from 20 to 30 feet high, sur- 

 mounted with pasture-ground rising to a height of about 80 feet, and 

 on which thousands of cattle may be seen grazing. Cape Corrientes, 

 88 6' S. lat., is a high and rather bold headland, the south-eastern 

 extremity of a range of hills resembling our English downs, which 

 extends east and west, and to which the Sierra Tandil and the Sierra 

 Vulcunn or Vuulcan belong. The cliffs here are however not abrupt, 

 but broken and rocky. Between Cape Corrientes and Mogotes Point 

 is a small bay in which ships may anchor in from five to ten fathoms 

 water, during off-shore winds, but which is dangerous at other times. 

 Mogotes Point is a bare sandy hill, 120 feet high. Near it are nume- 

 rous other sand-hills. More to the south is a range of bold cliffs, the 

 loftiest of which is about 70 feet high, which ends in Andres Head. 

 From this headland to Hermeneg Point is a rugged coast, from 80 to 

 80 feet high, along which scarcely a tree or bush is discernible. 

 Thence to Black Point and onwards to Asuncion Point is a similar 

 and equally dangerous coast, with sand-hills occasionally rising to 100 

 and 130 feet. About five miles east of Black Point is the Rio Quequen, 

 Gueguen, or Josef, which is accessible to boats in moderate weather. 

 Between Cape San Antonio and Asuncion Point there is a suffieient 

 depth of water near the coast for the largest ships, except by the Medano 

 Bank and Mogota Spit. Westward of Asuncion Point, rocky ridges 

 run with curious regularity in a south-west direction. Throughout the 

 entire distance from the mouth of the Plata to the Bahia Blanca, the 

 coast is as we have said formed either of a horizontal range of cliffs, 

 or of enormous accumulations of sand-dunes in horizontal ranges sepa- 

 rated by argillaceous flats. The northern shore of the Bahia Blanca is 

 also formed by these vast sand-dunes thus ranging in lines parallel to 

 the shore, and here extending for several miles inland on a plain which 

 slopes gradually upwards to the Sierra Ventana. These sand-dunes, 

 with the intervening flats which are so characteristic of this dreary 

 extent of coast, have, according to Mr. Dai-win, been formed by the 

 tendency which the tides have here as on most shoal-protected coasts 

 to throw up a bar parallel to and at some distance from the shore : 

 " this bar gradually becomes larger, affording a base for the accumu- 

 lation of sand-dunes, and the shallow space within then becomes silted 

 up with mud. The repetition of this process, without any elevation 

 of the land, would form a level plain traversed by parallel lines of 

 sand-hillocks ; during a slow elevation of the laud the hillocks would 

 rest on a gently inclined surface, like that on the northern shore of 

 Bahia Blanca." (' Geological Observations on South America.') 



For* Belgrano, an extensive and excellent inner harbour in Bahia 

 Blanca, 39 S. lat., is by far the best and most commodious harbour 

 on this coast. Its entrance is indicated by Mont Hermoso, at the 

 north side of Bahia Blanca, a small circular hill 120 feet high, on the 

 summit of which the crew of H.M.'s ship Beagle erected in 1833 a 

 pile of tosca stone 12 feet square as a land-mark, and which would 

 form an excellent site for a lighthouse if the capabilities of the country 

 were developed. The entrance to Port Belgrano is nearly blocked up 

 by two sandy shoals, the North Bank and Toro Bank ; but there is a 

 deep though narrow channel, and within the harbour there is ample 

 room, deep water, and good anchorage for vessels of any size. There 

 is always a strong current in the harbour ; and south-eastern gales 

 raise the water several feet, while those from the north-west have a 

 directly contrary effect. The harbour swarms with fish, there are 

 several rivulets of fresh water, and plenty of excellent water is 

 obtainable from wells between Anchorstock Hill and the beach. The 

 climate too is pleasant and healthy, the only drawback being the 

 almost entire absence of rain. A small colony, Argentina, is established 

 at Bahia Blanca, but it is far from flourishing, owing chiefly to the 

 unsettled state of the country and its consequent liability to attacks 

 from the Indians. If the country were rendered secure and its 

 commerce developed, this harbour would become of considerable 

 importance. It is the only tolerable harbour for shipping in Buenos 

 Ayres, with the capability of being made a good tl.'t'.'ii.-'iMe position : 

 it is indeed the only port between 25 S. lat. and Cape Horn capable 

 of receiving in security the largest ships ; while as Sir Woodbine 

 Parish points out, "it is the nearest point from which a direct commu- 



