CHARACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF LAKES 641 
this river holds its own as an important stream, until it divides into 
two channels, one flowing into the lake and through it to the Pacific, 
and the other to the Atlantic. 
Lake Argentine, in Patagonia, stretching east and west, is about 
60 miles long, and from 10 to 20 miles broad. The western end has 
several arms penetrating deep into the recesses of the cordillera, and 
there receiving the water of numerous glaciers. Large icebergs are to 
be seen floating on the lake with the prevailing westerly wind. Lake 
Argentino receives the drainage from Lake Viedma, and the outflow 
is by the River Santa Cruz into the Atlantic. A low range of 
mountains separates Lake Viedma from Lake San Martin, which has 
an exit into the Pacific. 
Lake San Martin occupies what was once a strait joining the 
Atlantic and Pacific. The main body of the water runs almost east 
and west, penetrating into the heart of the cordillera. The mountains 
rise abruptly from its shores, and it is subject to the most violent 
storms. Captain H. L. Crosthwait ^ made observations of seiches on 
the lake. 
Laguna Tar. — At the east end of the San Martin valley is a 
small shallow lake called liaguna Tar. Crosthwait says that at 
present its waters flow into Lake San Martin (that is, in a westerly 
direction), but that the continental water-divide is here so ill-defined 
that a cutting of a few feet would cause Laguna Tar to flow to the 
Atlantic. The dry bed of a stream is visible, and in time of flood 
this lake may, temporarily, have an exit in both directions. 
No lakes of any importance are connected with the rivers of Australia. 
Australia which drain to the sea. 
Several large lakes in the centre of Tasmania, nearly 4000 feet Tasmania. 
above sea-level, including the Great Lake, Lakes Sorell and Echo, 
drain by various tributaries into the River Derwent. The Great 
Lake, 3800 feet above the sea, is the largest, being about 12 miles 
long by 4 miles wide. The Derwent River takes its rise in Lake 
St Clair. 
The Waikato River is the largest in North Island, New Zealand, New 
and, rising about lat. 39^ S., drains Lakes Taupo, Waikare, and ^^'^^ 
Whangape on its course to the sea. 
^ See " A Journey to Lake San Martin, Patagonia," Geogr. Journ., vol. xxv. 
p. 286, 1905. 
2 The lakes of New Zealand were surveyed by Keith Lucas in 1902 ; the 
particulars are abstracted from his report in the Geogr. Journ., vol. xxiii. pp. 645 
and 744, 1904. 
41 
