TOPOGEAPHY OF ABGENIINA. 441 



average Englisli coal. Numerous beds have already been surveyed, and one layer 

 in the Eioim mine is no less than 13 feet thick. 



All the indications seem to show that this coalfield stretches southwards under 

 the Jurassic strata as far as the Neuquen district. The same region, contains 

 petroleum, alabasters, and limestones, valuable as building material. Moreover, 

 the ashes of the San Rafael coal have a large proportion of vunidium, the salts of 

 which are the best mordants for aniline dyes. But the best coal pits stand at a 

 great altitude, from 8,000 to 10,000 feet, and are covered with snow in winter. 

 Hence it would be difficult to work them with profit before the Eio Diamante is 

 made navigable, and these elevated regions opened up by the railways now in 

 course of construction over the Cordilleras. 



Towns of the Province of San Luis. 



The province of San Luis, separated from that of Mendoza by the course of 

 the Desaguadero and of the Salado, comprises a portion of the central uplands 

 and stretches far into the southern deserts. It is one of the most thinly peopled 

 regions of Argentina, although abounding in mineral resources, and very fertile 

 in all its irrigable districts. It has also the advantage of lying between Cordoba 

 and Mendoza, and is consequently intersected by the main highway between the 

 Atlantic and the Pacific. 



But of all the Argentine populations those of San Luis have suffered most 

 from the border warfare. For over 250 years, from the close of the sixteenth 

 century to the middle of the nineteenth century, the city of San Luis was the 

 advanced post of the Spaniards and Argentines against the Pampas Indians ; and 

 with such enemies the struggle was incessant. More than once the Indian horse- 

 men even advanced beyond San Luis, extending their incnrs^ions into the settled 

 districts, either as conquerors, or as allies of one or other of the Argentine factions. 

 Of all the Hispano-American peoples none have taken a more active part in these 

 fratricidal conflicts, in which the youth of the country have been more than 

 decimated. Hence, even still the proportion of women is greatly in excess of the 

 men, despite the stream of immigration, in which the males always outnumber the 

 females. 



City of San Luis — Yilla Mercedes, 



Built in 1597 by Martin de Loyola, nephew of Ignatius Loyola, founder of 

 the Jesuit Order, San Luis was long known by the name of Fuiifa de îos Venados, 

 from the bluff on which were erected the first houses ; hence the appellation of 

 Puntanos, given to the inhabitants. The city stands at an altitude of 2,500 feet 

 on the slopes of the Punta, which commands an extensive prospect of the surround- 

 ing plains and mountains, limited westwards by the snowy crests dominated by 

 Tupungato and the Cerro de Plata. A reservoir containing 420 million cubic 



