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CHAPTER I ^'^'VTRsiTY 



PATAGONIA 



-f,i^i. 



Physical features of Patagonia —The pampas — Climate — Discovery of 

 Patagonia by Magellan — Description of the natives — Sir Francis Drake — 

 Other travellers — Dr. Moreno — Coast-towns — Farms — Gauchos — Emptiness 

 of interior — Route of expedition. 



P 



ATAGONIA forms the southern 

 point or end of the South American 

 continent and extends, roughly speaking, 

 from about parallel 40'' to the Straits of 

 Magellan. Up to very recent times the 

 geography of this southern portion of the 

 New World has been in a nebulous con- 

 dition. Vast tracts of the interior of Pata- 

 gonia are as practically waste and empty 

 to-day as they were in the long-past ages. 

 It is certainly curious that this land should 

 have been left so completely out of view 

 when the great overspill of European 

 humanity looked overseas in search of new 

 homes where they might dwell and ex- 

 pand and find ample means of livelihood. 



Perhaps the description of Patagonia given in the earlier j) an of 



A 



ONE ui- oi'k GALcnos 



