102 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



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. As 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 

 ia 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 help him. 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 sort 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 Chile. 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 per cent is the true pampa. 



"Tin- mistake is. alter all, but a natural one, for up to 

 thirty years ago the pampas of the Plate coast comprised all 

 that the settler of that day knew, or cared to know, concern- 

 ing the country. He had pitched his camp as near to Buenos 

 Aires as possible, having an eye to cheap freights and a good 

 rainfall, while at the same time he kept in touch with the 

 political and trading capital. We must not lose sight of the 

 fact that forty years ago the Indian camps were pitched within 

 fifty miles of the town. Whilst these gentry were being driven 

 back, the hard grass on his farm gave way to soft meadows, 

 and as their stocking capacity increased, so did his yearly 

 balance-sheet show a better return. The land behind him to 

 the west was dry and sandy, and to have refined its coarse 

 grasses by the simple process of grazing would have occupied 

 many a weary and wasted year. So our pioneer stuck to the 

 coast, and when they spoke to him of the ' outside camps,' 

 he shook his head, and said he was all right where he 

 was. - 



