136 PATAGONIA AND SHEEP-REARING 



in the Punta Delfin district, south of the Chubut. 1 

 About 1890 the whole district round the Gulf of San 

 Jorge was occupied ; and a little later the stream from 

 the north met the stream from the south about San 

 Julian and Santa Cruz. The expansion of coloniza- 

 tion was less rapid in the interior. Ambrosetti tells 

 us of the establishment of the first ranches round the 

 Sierra de Lihuel Calel in 1893,2 and at the same time 

 Siemiradzki still found few traces of colonization on 

 the Colorado. 3 



The second stream of colonization came from the 

 Magellan region. It started in Chilean territory, 

 about Punta Arenas. It was about 1878 that sheep- 

 breeding spread round Punta Arenas, and between 

 1885 and 1892 was the most rapid growth of the 

 ranches of the Magellan district. North of the Straits 

 they occupied the lowlands round Skyring Water and 

 Otway Water, then the plateau south of Gallegos. 

 They spread along the Atlantic as far as the Santa 

 Cruz. In 1896 the limit of the sheep-region was on 

 the Santa Cruz about forty miles from the coast. 4 To 

 the west, Puerto Consuelo was founded in 1892, and 

 in 1896 colonization came up against the mountain 

 barrier which the Cerro Payen and the basalt table- 

 land of the Cerro Vizcachas interpose between Lake 

 Argentine and Ultima Esperanza fiord. 



The spheres of primitive colonization in southern 

 Patagonia on the coast still differ from each other in 

 regard to density of population. But breeders in search 

 of unoccupied land have not hesitated to push beyond. 

 In 1895 and 1900 they passed west of the Gulf of San 



L. J. Fontana, " Exploracion en la Patagonia austral," Bol. 

 Instit. Geog. Argent., vii, 1886, pp. 223-239. 



* J. B. Ambrosetti, "Viage a la Pampa central," Bol. Instit. Geog. 

 Argent., xiv. 1893, pp. 292-368. 



3 J. V. Siemiradzki, Eine Farschungsreise in Patagonien, Petermann's 

 Mitteilungen, xxxix. 1893, pp. 49-62. 



4 J. B. Hatcher, Reports of the Princeton University expeditions to 

 Patagonia 1896-9 (Narrative oj the Expeditions and Geography of 

 Southern Patagonia, Princeton, 1903). 



