74 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



"What is tlic paiui)a was in former ages covered by a body of 

 water, now coiiiiiionly known as the Pam})eau Sea. The flood 

 stretched up to and round the Cordova range standing in the 

 niiddk^ of the Republic ; in the south it reached to the tablelands 

 of Patagonia ; north to where the slopes of the Cordillera incline 

 to the watershed of the Parana. The formation of the plain 

 marks the different currents that directed the receding waters. 

 We find sand collected by erosion of the momitain chains ; vege- 

 table silt carried down by torrential rivers from a tropic interior, 

 mixed with the fossil deposits of a former ocean bed. The 

 general upheaval caused the waters to retire gradually from the 

 neighbourhood of the Andes, the outlet of those subterranean 

 forces which are still continuing their gigantic work, allieit in a 

 more deliberate and less marked degree. 



"If we examine the surface of the land, we shall find that, 

 although in certain tracts lying between the Cordova and the 

 Andes the sandy formation resembles that of the central pampas, 

 yet it conceals rounded foothills of barren stone, which make 

 stream and reservoir irrigation the only solution of the water 

 question. Wherever we go north to higher ground we find a 

 forest which, from its stunted outposts on the saudy plains, 

 closes and thickens to the impenetrable groves of the Argentine 

 Chaco. Again, skirting down the coast from the broad delta to 

 the Parana, we find that the porous sand has been mixed with, 

 and overlaid by, an increasing thickness of alluvial, packed by 

 the rains to a grazing ground of almost unparalleled richness. 

 So, none of these are the lands for which we seek. 



"Take now a rough line 200 miles long between the cities of 

 Cordova and Rosario. Drop further a 400-mile perpendicular 

 from Rosario due south towards Bahia Blanca, leaving outside 

 it all the rounded coastline of the Queen province. Complete 

 the figure by a southern boundary that roughly parallels the 

 Rio Colorado, and on the west skirts the detached spurs of the 

 ancient Cordova range. We have no\\'; 80,000 square miles, or, 

 roughly, 10,000 square leagues of the true central pampas, the 

 "outside camps" of the coast belt. Our parallelogram is not 

 a very exact one. We must bulge it here, and cut off a corner 

 there ; for in Argentina they are not used to be bounded by 

 straight rules, geometrical or otherwise. But if the surface 

 shades from a 6-in. alluvial to a faintly tinged sand ; if the sub- 

 soil to 100 yards depth is a sandy marl mixed with lumps of 

 freelime that soaks up the uncertain streams venturing from 

 the hills before they can catch sight of the low-lying coast : if 



