100 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



"The better camps in Tierra del Fuego will support about 

 5000 ^lu'«[> fco the square league (9 square miles), and have 

 been sold at public auction as high as £1000 per league. There 

 are possibly some 1000 miles in the island fit for grazing, of 

 which much is ye1 fiscal land. This will doubtless be taken up 

 as 1 he country opens out and a definite settlement is made 

 with regard to the Indian question. 



" Half -May up the Patagonian coast is a deep indent bearing 

 the name of the Gulf of San Jeorge. The 46th parallel of lati- 

 tude, piercing its centre, runs across a high barren tableland, 

 fco where Lake Buenos Aires, one of the largest of the newly 

 discovered Andean chain, shows its 70 miles of sparkling blue 

 among the foothills of the Cordillera. This line marks a dis- 

 tinct zone, the land to the south being exposed to colder 

 winds and having a heavier rainfall than that to the north. 

 Prom Cape Virgens another line, drawn in somewhat irregular 

 fashion to where the Pacific has pierced the Andes at Last 

 Hope Inlet (site of the famous MylodonCave), gives the Chilean 

 boundary to the south. Between these two boundaries is the 

 territory known as Santa Cruz, the most extensive of all the 

 national territories, as it is also the least settled, with an area 

 of 10.159 square miles and a total population of about 2000 

 persons. 



" Between Rio Gallegos, the first river flowing into the 

 Atlantic north of the Straits, and Sandy Point, he what are 

 reputed some of the best sheep camps at Patagonia. In a 

 country so little known and of such great extent as that 

 comprised under this title, it is as well to receive such a state- 

 ment with caution, though it may well be that owing to longer 

 settlement their possibilities have been more thoroughly ex- 

 ploited than those of remoter districts. 



"The lands on the coast are generally accounted the most 

 valuable, as the climate is tempered by the sea breeze, while 

 economy in freighting has also to be considered. 



" The alluvial soil on the surface reaches a scant 6 in., and 

 overlies a foot of stiff boulder clay. Below this come the 

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

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

 controversy in learned circles. 





