A LONGITUDINAL JOURNEY THROUGH CHILE 



263 



United States last sea- 

 son totaled $12,000,- 

 000. There was also 

 a considerable export 

 of frozen mutton to 

 Great Britain. 



The earliest naviga- 

 tors passed this point, 

 and Sarmiento's band, 

 settling here in the 

 sixteenth century, died 

 of starvation. On the 

 site of old Port Fam- 

 ine the Chilean flag 

 was planted in 1843. 

 Yankee sailors and 

 whalers dubbed the 

 forlorn penal colony 

 "Sandy Point" (Punta 

 Arenas ) , and the name 

 survived. 



In the sixties the 

 first steamship line be- 

 tween Valparaiso and 

 Liverpool was inaugu- 

 rated, and Punta Are- 

 nas, the most isolated 

 port in South America, 

 came into importance. 

 It is 1,100 miles from 

 Bahia Blanca, the 

 nearest big port on the 

 Atlantic, and 1,200 

 miles from Talca- 

 huano, on the west 

 coast. 



At the time of our 

 first visit, in 1904, 

 Punta Arenas was an 

 unpretentious little 

 town of galvanized- 

 iron roofs. I was 

 struck with the total 

 lack of verdure ; the 

 terrific wind-with-an-evil-twist, which 

 threatened to blow one across the Strait, 

 right on down to Cape Horn. 



Whenever the bell at the end of the 

 long pier tolled, there was great excite- 

 ment. It heralded the coming of a 

 steamer. Out rushed the cosmopolitan 

 inhabitants of this "tail-end" city, eager 

 for news from home. 



Telegraph and wireless finally brought 

 this region, so long cut off by sea and 

 impassable tracts of uncultivated country, 

 in touch with the rest of Chile. 



one OF 



Photograph f r 

 A PASSING 



)m Harriet Chalmers Adams 

 RACE 



During the last years of the nineteenth century and the first fifteen 

 years of this century, the Fuegian Indians, of three different tribes, 

 steadily decreased and are now practically exterminated. This is an 

 Ona woman, weaver of baskets. Tuberculosis and kindred ills of 

 civilization, along with the sheepherder's deadly rifle, put an end to 

 her tribe (see text, page 273). 



The Panama Canal - struck Punta 

 Arenas a hard blow. Trade was di- 

 verted. But, in spite of its waning im- 

 portance as a port of call, the city con- 

 tinued to thrive. 



AN IMPORTANT PUR MARKET 



Turning its eyes from sea to earth, it 

 grew to value its surrounding grazing 

 lands. Sheep ranches multiplied. Motor 

 roads stretched out toward the Argentine 

 pampa ; a steadily increasing fleet of small 

 vessels sailed into the Fuegian channels. 



