478 



AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



settler held his gi'ound for three years, until the day m hen he rashly attempted 

 to levy fiscal dues on some North American whalers. The result was that he 

 received a visit from a United States corvette, which laid his village in ashes. 



Two years after that event Great Britain resumed definite possession of the 

 Falkland Islands, regardless of the protests made by Argentina against this 

 annexation. Although a natural dependency of the South American Continent, 

 the archipelago has thus become a British colony like part of the Guianas 

 and the islands of Trinidad and Tobago at the other extremity of the main- 

 land. 



Although one of the least important lands in the vast colonial empire of 



Fig. 188. — Falkland Aechipelaqo. 

 Scale 1 : 3.300,000, 



West oF ureenwich 



58° 



Oto 50 

 Fathoms. 



Depths. 



m to 100 

 Fathoms. 



100 Fathoms 

 and upwai'ds. 



CO Miles. 



Great Britain, this group of antarctic islands has, nevertheless, a certain value 

 as a cattle run. But it is prized by its present masters more especially as a 

 strategical position, keeping guard on the highwav of communication between the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 



Lying under 52° south latitude, that is, at the same distance south of the 

 equator as parts of England and Holland north of the line, the Falklands might be 

 supposed from their rigorous climate to be situated much nearer to the south pole. 

 The polar aspect of these oceanic lands is even intensified by the mountains which 



