THE VINEYARDS 81 



only now taking place. At Mendoza it is quite finished. 

 The San Rafael centre, on the other hand, is of recent 

 origin ; it was created on the site of a fortress which 

 guarded the Indian frontier until 1880. Cultivated 

 areas have appeared on virgin soil, in the midst of the 

 desert. These different circumstances account for diver- 

 sities which, though they will disappear in the course 

 of time, are still obvious to the traveller. The general 

 scene is the same everywhere. Arid and desolate 

 mountains close the horizon in the west ; at their 

 feet spreads the immense alluvial deposit on which 

 the vineyards, surrounded by rows of poplars, grow 

 wherever water is to be found. 



There are so few gaps in the lower slopes of the 

 Cordillera that the available water is gathered at a 

 small number of points. The Rio San Juan alone 

 drains a belt of the Cordillera at least 140 miles broad. 

 Each of the two oases, Mendoza and San Rafael, has 

 two streams of water to feed it. The Mendoza and 

 the Tunuyan at Mendoza, and the Diamante and the 

 Atuel at San Rafael, approach each other, when they 

 leave the mountains, so closely that the estates they 

 water blend into a continuous area. Then, however, in- 

 stead of uniting, they diverge and are lost, separately, 

 in the plain. These streams have less fall than the 

 thinner torrents of the oases of the north-west, and the 

 average inclination of the dejection-cones which bear 

 the vineyards is slight. The upper slopes of the cone, 

 where thin beds of clay lie upon shingle, give clear 

 wines of excellent aroma. Hence, in the Mendoza 

 district, the vineyards of Lujan and, further down, 

 of Godoy Cruz, Guaymallen, and Maipu produce 

 choice brands. On the plain, to the east of Mendoza, 

 at San Martin and Junin, the harvest is larger, but 

 the wine is rough, and one can often taste the salt- 

 petre of the clayey soil. There is the same difference 

 between the upper and lower district at San Juan and 

 San Rafael. 



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