212 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: GEOGRAPHY. 



beauty. In connection with our work it became absolutely necessary to 

 give names to some of the geographic features discovered, especially in 

 my field notes. Some of these names I subsequently published with 

 sketch maps, showing their location, accompanying preliminary papers 

 which relate chiefly to the geology of the region. I endeavored as much as 

 possible to avoid any attempt at a detailed geography of the region, real- 

 izing at the time the speedy completion of the infinitely more accurate 

 and detailed geographic work of the Argentine Boundary Commission, in 

 charge of Dr. F. P. Moreno, to whom, more than to any other person, we 

 are indebted for whatever is at present known of the geography of the 

 interior of southern South America. I am pleased to see that my expecta- 

 tions have already been fulfilled in the splendid series of quarto volumes 

 issued by that Commission. I am, moreover, not only gratified to see 

 that the few names given by me have been adopted by Dr. Moreno, but 

 I am also convinced as to the wisdom of my forbearance to enter the field 

 of the professional geographer, which might very easily have resulted in a 

 confusing synonymy of important geographic names. 



The succeeding pages will be very largely devoted to a discussion of 

 those causes which have contributed to produce the principal geographic 

 features of Patagonia, while the descriptive geography will be somewhat 

 curtailed, though still sufficient, it is hoped, to give the reader a comprehen- 

 sive idea of the geography of the region, including not only the areal 

 distribution of its plains, mountains, rivers and lakes, but its peculiar 

 topography, the climatic conditions to which the latter has given rise, 

 and the effect produced by these conditions upon the animal life and 

 vegetation of Patagonia. The natives, their industries and the economic 

 possibilities of the region, will also receive some attention. 



PRINCIPAL GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES. 



Patagonia was the name given by Magellan early in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury to the southernmost region of South America. The name was given 

 in reference to certain large, human footsteps (Patagones], observed on 

 the beach at San Julian, while in winter quarters in 1520. Since Magel- 

 lan's time the name has come generally to be applied to all that part of 

 South America lying between the Straits of Magellan on the south, and 

 the Rio Negro, or thirty-ninth parallel of south latitude, on the north. 

 Since it passed from under the dominion of Spain, early in the last 



