CHAPTER VII 



COMODORO RiVADAVIA AND ToWN LiFE 



CoMODORO RiVADAVIA Stands on a small triangle of land 

 under an overhanging bluff some 800 feet high. Like 

 most of the coast towns it is without a water supply, sa 

 that two years before all their water was hauled twelve 

 miles by wagon and sold about the town at 60 cents a 

 barrel. As the town grew and prospered, this became 

 more and more burdensome, until finally to relieve the 

 situation the government undertook to bore for artesian 

 water. In the Andes 300 miles back from the coast there 

 is abundance of good water running in numerous streams, 

 which, however, sink into the ground or dry up as they come 

 out to the open country ; accordingly every one of the people 

 feels certain that this water must reach the sea by under- 

 ground sources, and that to tap this must yield abundant 

 artesian water. I think the successes in Australia in get- 

 ting artesian water in the barren stretches influence the in- 

 habitants, so many of them having come from that country. 



The well was started and went down 1600 feet without 

 results, until suddenly the whole boring apparatus was 

 blown out of the hole by a gas explosion, followed by a 

 flow of oil. Of course this made great excitement and an 

 oil craze followed, during which all the land for over one 

 hundred miles north and south of this point was claimed for 

 oil prospects, the government reserving for itself the center 

 of the area. When we came to the town six or seven wells 

 had been bored and as many more were projected. 



The crude oil is unusually heavy and looks not unlike 

 a thin tar. So far it has been found suitable only for fuel, 

 the gasoline and kerosene element being very low. How- 

 ever, as all the coal in the region is brought in bags from 



