ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



ARIZONA. 



39 



prise the 60,000 square miles situated within 

 the territories recently begun to be settled. 

 But, independently of the latter, the Govern- 

 ment owns in the provinces 36,400 square 

 miles of paturage-lands ; 29,100 of forest and 

 mountain- lands, and 625 agricultural lands. 

 The pastures are worth $388,000,000, the 

 forests and mountain-lands $49,000,000, and 

 the portion suitable for farming purposes $90,- 

 000,000, constituting in the aggregate a nation- 

 al domain of $527,000,000. 



Real estate of every kind has risen in value, 

 as follows : 



During the interval the population increased 

 154 per cent., and the product of stock-farms 

 and agriculture 252 per cent. 



Exhibitions. Besides the International Exhi- 

 bition of Agricultural Products and Machin- 

 ery, opened at Buenos Ayres on April 25, the 

 Italian colony there held a second exhibition 

 of its own, the Government granting every 

 facility for the purpose. The industrial center 

 of that city, moreover, contemplates holding a 

 national exhibition preparatory to the exhibit 

 that the republic will make at Paris in 1889. 



Exploring Expeditions. M. Thouar, the French 

 explorer, returned from his Pilcomayo expedi- 

 tion, which established the fact that the Pil- 

 comayo river is navigable through its entire 

 course. There is to be formed a river steam 

 navigation company between Buenos Ayres 

 and Bolivia, for navigating the Pilcomayo, and 

 a committee has been appointed. 



The Argentine Geographical Institute was 

 preparing to n't out a scientific exploring ex- 

 pedition to Patagonia. It was to leave Santa 

 Cruz under the command of Lieut. -Col. No- 

 yano, thence to proceed southward along the 

 Andes till it reached the Straits of Magellan. 

 It was hoped that the Government would co- 

 operate, in order to establish whether the Rio 

 Negro and Santa Cruz rivers are navigable, 

 and that it would order the frontier troops at 

 Limay to assist the expedition. 



Jn September the members of a French sci- 

 entific exploring expedition arrived at Buenos 

 Ayres, with the intention of exploring the 

 Central Chaco for geographical, ethnological, 

 and zoological purposes. M. de Brettes, mem- 

 ber of the Paris Geographical Society, is the 

 commander of the expedition. He will be ac- 

 companied by Engineer Boiviers, M. Robin, an 

 officer of artillery, and M. Judas, who has re- 

 cently arrived from Tonquin. The exploring 

 party was to set out from Tarija. 



Gold Discoveries in Patagonia. The discovery 

 of placer -gold near Cape Virgins and the 



Straits of Magellan induced the Government 

 to place one of its cruisers, the " Villarino," 

 on the line, touching at Pat agones, Chubut, 

 Deseado, Santa Cruz, and Gallego. The gold 

 is found in the sands of a tract of land be- 

 tween the Straits of Magellan and the Gallegos 

 river, under the fifty-first parallel of southern 

 latitude. It exists both in the sands of the 

 beach and of rivers, but varies a great deal in 

 richness. On the Chilian side, at Punta Are- 

 nas, a free port, many adventurers were en- 

 gaged in washing the auriferous sands. Both 

 in the Argentine Republic and in Chili the 

 existence of gold near the frontier of their 

 southernmost possessions created excitement, 

 and the Argentine Government took the ne- 

 cessary steps toward establishing a maritime 

 authority on the spot, by sending down there 

 a committee of officers and an engineer. Mean- 

 while, applications for concessions to work the 

 mines were pouring in. 



ARIZONA. Territorial Government. The fol- 

 lowing were the Territorial officers at the be- 

 ginning of the year : Governor, C. Meyer Zu- 

 lick ; Secretary, James A. Bayard ; Treasurer, 

 Thomas J. Butler; Auditor, E. P. Clark; 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction, R. L. 

 Long. Judiciary, Supreme Court: Chief -Jus- 

 tice, John C. Shields ; Associate Justices, Will- 

 iam W. Porter and William H. Barnes. 



Mining. The product of Arizona in precious 

 metals for 1885 is given by Wells, Fargo & 

 Co. as $5,748,710 silver and $846,426 gold. 

 To this should be added 20 per cent, for ores 

 extracted by chlorides and shipped to San 

 Francisco and Colorado for treatment. This 

 shows a falling off from 1884. Mining indus- 

 tries have been depressed for several years, 

 consequent upon the low price of silver and 

 copper. During the present year much atten- 

 tion has been given to prospecting for gold, 

 with gratifying results. The copper-mines of 

 Arizona, except where they are close to the 

 railroad, and ores are easily fluxed, can not be 

 worked at a profit. The coal-fields in Apache 

 and Yavapai counties will be worked profit- 

 ably when railroads make a market. 



Railroads. In connection with the Southern 

 Pacific and the Atlantic and Pacific, which 

 traverse the Territory from east to west, the 

 Arizona and Sonora, which runs from Benson 

 to Nogales on the Sonora line, and the Clifton 

 and Lordsburg narrow-gauge, which runs for 

 about 40 miles in Arizona, there are now un- 

 der construction a road from Prescott Junc- 

 tion on the Atlantic and Pacific to the city of 

 Prescott, a distance of 72 miles ; one from Cal- 

 abasas ma Tucson to Globe City, which will 

 be about 150 miles long, and a road from Mar- 

 icopa Station on the Southern Pacific ma 

 Tempe to Phoenix. 



Desert Lands and Irrigation. Arizona contains 

 nearly 114,000 square miles. About 18,000,- 

 000 acres are utilized for stock-raising, and 

 upon it graze nearly 1,000,000 head of cattle, 

 more than 1,000,000 sheep, besides horses, 



