72 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



endless beds of marl, sand, and gravel, wliieh have caused the 

 well-known tablelands to be the subject of so much puzzled 

 controversy in learned circles. 



"The first sheep brought to tlie mainland b\- the Falklanders 

 Avere hardy Shropshires, with a strong infusion of ^lerino, a 

 type that was speedily modified, before the settlers stretched 

 the seemingly limitless plains. The problem given them was to 

 convert their grasses in the shortest i)Ossible time into mutton 

 and wool. To this end, larger breeils were introduced, princi- 

 pally Linco]n and Romney Marsh, and it is from this last-named 

 .strain that the majority of Patagonian wools are clipped to-day. 



"On these higher pampas of the tablelands the soil is worn 

 perilously thin, small patches of grass alternating with a surface 

 of pure gravel and useless scrub, and Nature's warm provision 

 of wool grew coarse and luxuriant in the teeth of the blustering 

 winds that swept across them. The newer breeds of sheep 

 imported by the settlers strode joyfully from patch to patch, 

 picking out the softer grasses, and from one long-legged genera- 

 tion to another they waxed fat and kicked. 



"The fai-mers of Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego are 

 mostly hardy Scotch, practical Englishmen, or New Zealanders, 

 as, by the way, are most of their shepherds and hands. The 

 Argentine and Chilian peon has given but poor results in the 

 south, and a traveller may ride from Santa Cruz to Sandy Point 

 and hear no word but English, with, perhaps, a slight smattering 

 of German. A!s a consequence, business is conducted on the 

 uncompromising basis of pounds, shillings, and pence, the 

 national paper money being solely a medium of exchange. The 

 keynote of life in Argentina's farthest south is independence, not 

 to say isolation. It is a rawly new country, even its very 

 formation is geologically unfinished, and it is too big for any 

 man to interfere with his neighbour, to fight him or to lu^lp 1dm. 

 The settler is launched upon the dreary leagues with his flock of 

 sheep, his horse, and his faithful dogs. Whether he be man 

 enough to win out will depend here, more perhaps than in any 

 other civilised land, upon himself alone. 



"If the question were suddenly put to them, 'What soi-t of 

 a country is Argentina?' ninety-nine out of a hundred men 

 would reply that it was a level, treeless plain, adding as an 

 afterthought that it extends half-way up the ridge of the Andes, 

 separating it from Chili. But in reality four-fifths of the big 

 Republic is covered by (1) high mountains and their broken 

 foothills; (2) abrupt tablelands; (3) scrub and forest. The 

 remaining 20 ])er cent, is the true pampa. 



