692 



R. A. F. PENROSE, JR. 



and later by the advent of the gold miner. Its population is of a 

 most cosmopolitan character, comprising, besides the native Chileans, 

 many Austrians and a considerable number of Argentines, Germans, 

 and English, as well as some Americans, French, and others. Punta 

 Arenas bears much the same relation to the Far South as Dawson 

 City, on the Yukon River, does to the Far North, both being isolated 

 settlements on the borders of opposite polar regions, where, for vast 

 distances, there is no other civilization; and though they are not 



Fig. 7. — Gold-bearing alluvium on the Rio Verde, Tierra del Fuego. 



large cities, their very isolation gives them a metropolitan air, for they 

 are dependent on themselves for protection, amusement, and the 

 general facilities of civilization. The one is the Antarctic metropolis 

 and the other the Arctic metropolis of the Western Hemisphere; 

 beyond both, civilization ceases. 



MODE OF OCCURRENCE OF THE GOLD DEPOSITS 



The gold of the Magellan region, including the Strait of Magellan 

 and Tierra del Fuego, is, so far as at present known, most all in 

 alluvial, or placer, deposits. Very few gold-bearing veins have been 



