BOUNDARIES OF AEOENTINA. 349 



taken as the starting-point of Argentine topography. Geodetic surveys have 

 also been aided by the accurate determination of several other places, such as 

 Rosario, Rio Cuarto, Mendoza, Santa Fé, La Paz, Goya, Corrientes, San Luiz, Villa 

 Mercedes, Villa Maria, Tucuman, Sal ta, San Juan, From year to year fresh 

 studies will enable the geographer to fill in the details, and to embody in a single 

 map the numerous local documents possessed by every province and city of 

 Argentina. But in the more remote districts how many obscure problems 

 still remain unsolved ! A case in point is the position of Tari j a, which, since 

 the time of d'Orbigny (1839), has been variously fixed on the maps with 

 differences of as much as 48 minutes of latitude, and one degree 45 minutes of 

 longitude. 



Boundaries — Frontier Questions. 



In the absence of accurate maps the boundaries have not yet been everywhere 

 determined, either between the several provinces, or between the Republic and her 

 neighbours. Even in the estuary the islet of Martin Garcia, whose position 

 between the Parana and Uruguay confluence gives it great strategic importance, 

 has been assigned to Argentina, although it belongs geographically to Uruguay. 

 Hence the possession of this narrow rock, of no agricultural or industrial value, 

 has often been hotly contested by the rival States. 



Towards the Paraguay the frontier question has been settled by force, and 

 here Argentina has acquired the territory of the " Missions," which forms an 

 enclave between the Parana and the Uruguay. She also claims the other Jesuit 

 Missions, which have been annexed to the Brazilian State of Santa Catharina, 

 and which comprise a strii> of about 12,000 square miles in extent. West of the 

 Paraguay, the part of Chaco lying beyond the Pilcoraayo was awarded to the 

 Paraguayans by a decision of 1875. But in the extreme north the Argentine 

 maps still trace as the legal boundary the northern frontier of the province of 

 Tarija, which had been attached by a royal decree to the administration of the 

 Argentine town of Salta, but which had " opted " in 1825 for annexation to 

 Bolivia. 



In the west the frontier towards Chili has been settled in a general way 

 by the treaty of 1881, according to which " the dividing line is drawn across 

 the highest summits indicating the watershed." This clause involves a 

 certain contradiction, for such a line does not coincide exactly with the sinu- 

 osities of the waterparting. Differences of opinion must therefore inevitably 

 arise, especially when the limits in the Patagonian Andes come to be settled, 

 for here the Cordilleras are interrupted by numerous gaps, and are even 

 turned by the labyrinth of fiords which penetrate into the eastern plains. But 

 provision is made in the treaty for the settlement of all such disputed points by 

 arbitration. 



In Fuegia the frontier arrangement leaves no question open to doubt. Hence 

 there seem no pretexts left for the angry discussions which, nevertheless, break 



