ARGON 



343 



ARGUS 



Related Subjects. A more detailed .knowl- 

 edge of Argentina may be gained from a study 

 of the following articles : 



In this poem, however, Holmes confused the 

 chambered nautilus with this little argonaut, 

 or paper soi/or, for the latter has not a cham- 



Bahia Blanca 

 Buenos Aires 

 Cordoba 

 La Plata 



CITIES AND TOWNS 



Mendoza 

 Rosario 

 Santa Fe 



Tucuman 



COAST WATERS 



Atlantic Ocean 



Tierra del Fuego 



Alfalfa 

 Cattle 

 Corn 

 Gold 



Aconcagua 



Aconquija 



Parana 

 Pilcomayo 

 Plata, Rio de la 



Gauchos 



LEADING PRODUCTS 



Meat 

 Oil 



Sheep 

 Wheat 



MOUNTAINS 



Andes 



RIVERS 



Uruguay 

 Vermejo 



UNCLASSIFIED 



Patagonia 



Consult Boyce's Illustrated South America; 

 Handbook of the Argentine Republic (Bulletin 

 Issued by the Pan-American Union, Washing- 

 ton, D. C.) : Eraser's The Amazing Argentine. 



AR'GON, a gas which is found in the at- 

 mosphere, of which it forms only a very small 

 proportion, about eight-tenths of one per cent. 

 It is a chemical element and its symbol is A. 

 Its presence in the atmosphere was suspected 

 for a long time, but it was discovered only in 

 1875 by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ram- 

 say. It is a colorless and odorless gas and 

 seems to possess no chemical properties by 

 which it can unite with other substances; 

 - fore, no compounds have been discovered. 

 Argon has been reduced to a liquid and a solid. 

 Four volumes of it dissolve in 100 volumes of 

 water. See CHEMISTRY. 



ARGONAUT, ar'gonawt, a small cuttlefish, 

 named for the sailors on the Argo (see ARGO- 

 TS, below), because it was popularly sup- 

 posed to sail on the surface of the sea with 

 its two webbed arms for sails. The male is 

 very inconspicuous not more than an inch 

 in length ; but the female is eight or ten times 

 as large and has a fluted, spiral shell, called 

 the boat. This little animal is the paper 

 nautilus of which poets have often written, 

 and it is especially well known through Oliver 

 Wendell Hoi race's The Chambered Nautilus. 



ARGONAUT 



Illustration shows (a) male, (b) female. 

 Though drawn nearly to same scale, the male 10 

 only about one-eighth the size of the female. 



bered shell and is not a true nautilus. Thus 

 the lines on the "ship of pearl" which "sails 

 the unfathomed main" apply to the legend 

 regarding the argonaut while the rest of the 

 poem refers to the real nautilus. 



ARGONAUTS, ar' gonawts, the fabled 

 heroes of Greece who sailed with Jason in the 

 Argo in search of the Golden Fleece. Legend 

 has it that long before the Trojan War, Aenos, 

 king of Thessaly, became tired of ruling and 

 gave up the throne to his brother Pelias, on 

 condition that the latter should rule only until 

 Jason, the son of Aenos, became of age. When 

 Jason eventually demanded the crown of his 

 uncle, Pelias pretended to comply, but sug- 

 gested that Jason and his companions could 

 gain great renown by going in search of the 

 Golden Fleece, which was known to be in the 

 distant land of Colchis, on the shores of the 

 Kuxine (Black) Sea. 



Anxious above all things for glory, the young 

 heroes set out on their voyage in the ship Argo t 

 which had been made for them. Jason 

 leader, but Orpheus, Castor and Pol- 

 lux, Hercules and Theseus were fit companions 

 for him. After many adventures they reached 

 Colchis, \\lure they learned that the Golden 

 Fleece hung in the branches of a tree and was 

 guarded by a dragon that never slept. Through 

 the aid of Medea, a powerful sorceress, the 

 daughter of the king of Colchis, a deep sleep 

 was made to fall upon the dragon, and Jason 

 captured the Golden Fleece and departed for 

 Thessaly, taking Medea with him. This legend 

 probably had its origin in some early voyage 

 of discovery. See JASON; MEDEA. 



AR'GUS, in Greek mythology, a fabulous 

 creature known as the all-seeing, because he 

 had 100 eyes. This monster was placed by 



