158 PATAGONIA AND SHEEP-REARING 



have no proprietary title. The spHtting up of the land 

 and the organization of ownership will before long 

 lead to the extinction of the practice of transhumation, 

 and the greater part of the winter pasturage will be 

 turned into permanent pasture by boring wells and 

 nursing the water-supply. 



The district round the Zapala ranch has become very 

 busy since the construction of the railway, which has 

 deeply affected the conditions of life there. It has made 

 a sort of capital of Zapala. It is curious to contrast 

 the renaissance which has followed upon the appear- 

 ance of the railway in this district with the much less 

 material changes which it has made at Maquinchao. The 

 life which the railway concentrates at Zapala includes 

 not only the wool trade, as at Maquinchao, but also 

 the cattle trade. The herds which are to be exported 

 gather round the ranch at the same time as the tropas 

 of wagons, and a good price is paid for the right of 

 pasturage. While the Maquinchao line ends at the 

 port of San Antonio, which is merely fitted up for the 

 export of wool, the Zapala railway feeds the refrigerator 

 at Bahia Blanca. It joins up with the network of 

 railways of the Pampa. Sheep arrive at Zapala, not 

 only from the surrounding district and from the Neuquen, 

 but from a good part of the Rio Negro, and even the 

 Chubut. The convoys of animals coming from the 

 south find it best to keep near the Cordillera, where 

 the pasturage is better. Only a few of them descend 

 the Limay as far as Senillosa. From Zapala to Senillosa 

 there is no suitable road in connection with the railway, 

 and further east it is necessary to go as far as Choele 

 Choel to find tracks which lead to it. The exporting 

 of the sheep lasts five months, from November to 

 March. 



Zapala station is also a point of convergence of herds 

 of cattle. There are people at Zapala who still remember 

 the time when the cattle brought from the Pampa to 

 go to Chile passed through their valley. Although these 



