THE FERTILE PAMPAS OF ARGENTINE 



An excellent Commerical Guide to South America is published by the Phila- 

 delphia Commercial Museum. The author is Edzvard James Cattell, assisted by 

 H. S. Morrison and A. C. Kauffman. It is 10 by 12 inches, consists of 300 pages, 

 and contains large maps of each county. Detailed information is given on almost 

 every conceivable subject. The f ollozving paragraphs are abstracted from the book: 



THE most easterly point of Brazil 

 reaches a longitude much 

 closer to the line passing 

 through Liverpool than the line passing 

 through New York city ; for South 

 America and Africa are separated by a 

 shorter span of water than that sepa- 

 rating New Orleans from the northern 

 ■coast of South America. Buenos Aires, 

 capital of the Argentine Republic, on 

 the same parallel of latitude as Cape 

 Town, is 650 miles nearer to that city 

 than to the city of New York. So great 

 is this easterly range of the Western 

 Continent that more than three-quar- 

 ters of the western coast of South 

 America lies to the east of New York 

 •city. 



The area of North America in round 

 figures is 8,300,000 square miles, that of 

 South America being seven per cent 

 less, or 7,700,000 square miles. In 

 mean altitude above sea-level both con- 

 tinents show practically the same 

 record. Further, they are alike in being 

 of triangular shape, with the apex in 

 each case lying toward the South Pole. 

 Although North America has an ad- 

 vantage in area, the point most distant 

 from the coast in North America is 

 practically the same distance from the 

 coast line as in the most interior point 

 in South America. It is also necessary 

 to take cognizance of the contrast ex- 

 isting between the river systems of 

 North and South America. In South 

 America the heaviest rainfall takes 

 place in that section which offers the 

 broadest catch-basin, or drainage area, 

 and this area lies in the heart of the 

 continent, remote from the sea. In 

 North America the division of greatest 

 rainfall is of contracted area and lies 

 close to the sea. This physical contrast 

 lifts South American waterways into 

 the position of great arteries of trade — 



commercial highways to the sea from 

 centers of trade and population a thou- 

 sand miles inland and often inacces- 

 sible to railroads. 



The Argentine Republic has an area 

 of 1,129,400 square miles, or about one- 

 third the area of Brazil ; it is four times 

 the size of its western neighbor, Chile ; 

 twice the size of Bolivia, on the north ; 

 nine and a half times that of Paraguay, 

 and fifteen and a half times that of 

 Uruguay, both lying to the east. If 

 transferred to the Northern Continent, 

 this Argentine area would cover the 

 Pacific coast territory from the Cana- 

 dian line to the southern extremity of 

 Mexico, including the states of Wash- 

 ington, Oregon, and California and all 

 the states of Mexico. It could be di- 

 vided into twenty-five states, each as 

 large as Pennsylvania. From north to 

 south it measures about 2,200 miles, or 

 a distance exceeding that separating 

 New York and Denver. In the northern 

 part, or that nearest the Equator, the 

 country has a width of 1,000 miles, 

 equivalent to the distance between New 

 York and St Louis ; at the extreme 

 southern limit of continental Argen- 

 tine, however, the eastern and western 

 boundaries are only 200 miles apart. 

 Its coast line is equal in length to a 

 line drawn from Key West, Florida, to 

 Halifax, Nova Scotia. The wide range 

 of climatic conditions prevailing in the 

 Republic is indicated by the circum- 

 stance that its territory stretches over 

 as many degrees of latitude as separate, 

 on the Northern Continent, the most 

 southerly point of Florida and the cen- 

 ter of Hudsons Bay. 



the; natural divisions of the republic 



Although the larger portion of the 

 Argentine Republic is popularly de- 

 scribed as "the plains," the country 



