ARGENTINA 



335 



ARGENTINA 



part until 1891, and then they began to come 

 from Russia only. 



Buenos Aires, the capital, is considered a 

 rival of Paris as a beautiful metropolis; its 

 population, 1,560,000 in 1914, is increasing rap- 

 idly, 1,700,000 having been claimed for it in 

 1915 (under the title BUENOS AIRES there is 

 a full history of the city). No other city in 

 the country is known to many people in North 

 America, but some are gaining rapidly in im- 

 portance ; the second city is Rosario (220,000) ; 

 others coming into prominence are Cordoba 

 (135,000), La Plata (106,000), Tucuman (79,- 

 -000), Bahia Blanca (73,000) and Mendoza 

 (60,000). 



Location and Climate. Argentina is almost 

 wholly within the temperate zone; it there- 

 fore enjoys all the climatic conditions that 

 the habitable regions of the United States and 

 Canada offer, but conditions of the seasons 

 are exactly reversed. When the snows of 

 winter cover a large part of North America, 

 Argentina is engaged in harvesting. It lies 

 wholly south of the equator, its northern 

 boundary being 22 south latitude, and its 

 southern, 55 south. Havana, Cuba, lies in 

 about 23 north latitude; if a map of Argen- 

 tina is folded over a map of North America, 

 drawn on the same scale, Argentina's northern 

 boundary will touch Havana, and the island 

 of Tierra del Fuego (part of which Argentina 

 owns) will reach to Hudson Bay. 



It is a natural supposition, then, that the 

 range of climate of this southern republic 

 would average well with that of the United 

 States and Lower Canada, and that those in- 

 dustries which thrive in North America would 

 be the leading ones in Argentina. These con- 

 clusions are largely true, particularly with 

 respect to products, but there are certain cli- 

 matic differences worthy of note. 



The North American continent in the lati- 

 tude of Labrador is cooled by the down- 

 flowing Labrador Current from the icy Arctic 

 regions; part of the Southern Argentina coast 

 Northern Patagonia section) is modified 

 in temperature by the Equatorial Current 

 (still warm when it reaches the far southern 

 latitude), which makes possible a vast south- 

 ern area suitable for stock-raising. However, 

 to offset this advantage somewhat, cool winds 

 blow across the lofty Andes Mountains from 

 the west. Much of the lower third of the 

 country is arid, because the winds from the 

 mountains lose their moisture before reach- 

 ing the plains. This is also true of a wide 



belt running the entire length of the country 

 bordering on the lofty western mountain 

 ranges. The elevation of the land ranges from 

 sea level, along the east coast, to several thou- 

 sand feet, in the Andes, and has an average of 

 about 2,000 feet in the minor ranges which 

 are a part of the Andean system. The rainfall 

 is over sixty inches in the east, decreasing to 

 as little as two inches in the plateau region. 



Over half of Argentina borders on the At- 

 lantic Ocean on the east, giving the country 

 nearly 2,000 miles of coast line; on the re- 

 mainder of the eastern boundary and on the 

 north Argentina meets Uruguay, a corner of 

 Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. Chile extends 

 the entire length of the country on the west. 



Some idea of the region of Argentina in 

 the latitude of Talcahuano, Chile (near Con- 

 ception), as it appeared more than six decades 

 ago, has been acquired from Jules Verne's 

 popular romance The Children of Captain 

 Grant. In this well-known story a party of 

 men led by Lord Glenarvan cross the conti- 

 nent from Talcahuano eastward on the 37th 

 parallel without guides, through the Andean 

 pass of Antuco and on through the entire 

 breadth of Argentina, experiencing earthquake, 

 storm, avalanches, fight with a condor, etc., 

 and reach the Atlantic coast in safety. The 

 chief value of this narrative at the present 

 day is the contrast between the conditions 

 portrayed by the romancer and the actual 

 conditions of our time, in that land of mar- 

 velous development. No one should permit 

 himself to be misled by thinking of it as a 

 picture of the present. Nor is the portrayal 

 of a journey across the continent in this re- 

 gion of the world in pioneer days confined to 

 tales of romance. Biographers of the great 

 Pope Pius IX relate with some detail his 

 arduous march, in his young manhood, in 

 1823, with members of an ecclesiastical com- 

 mission, from Buenos Aires over the pampas 

 and through the mountain passes to Santiago, 

 Chile. This first Pope to outlive "the years 

 of Peter" was the first and only Pope that 

 ever visited any part of America at any time 

 in his life; and the story of his rigorous 

 American experiences has given us an inter- 

 esting picture of the Argentine life and cnvi- 

 nt of nearly a century ago. 



Industrial Life. The day is not far distant 

 when Argentina will be a very important fac- 

 tor in the world's commerce; already welcome 

 evidences of this are at hand. The United 

 States cannot provide sufficient fresh meat 



