PATAGONIA 3 



latitude, the contrast descending to the smallest particulars, moun- 

 tain against plain, forest as opposed to thorn-scrub, rain against 

 sun. The wind only is common to both more or less, though 

 it is felt to a far greater degree upon the pampa. The contrast 

 extends to the coasts. The eastern coast is a level treeless 



AMONG THE ANDES 



series of downs with few bays to offer shelter to shipping ; the 

 western coast, on the contrary, is grooved and notched with fjords, 

 and the beetling headlands loom dark with forests. 



Roughly speaking, the country to the east of the Andes belongs 

 to Argentina, that on the west to Chili : between them lies a long 

 strip of disputed territory. From this great dividing-line rivers 

 flow into both oceans, into the Atlantic and into the Pacific. On 

 the eastern side of the range, where our travels took us, the rivers 

 cut transversely across the continent to the Atlantic. Such are the 

 Chubut, the Deseado, the southern Chico, which joins with the Santa 

 Cruz in a wide estuary before reaching the ocean, and the Gallegos. 

 At the mouth of each of these a settlement has sprung up. 



