AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF SOUTH AMERICA 7 
boundary is mountainous and the eastern half is extremely flat with 
many lagoons and marshes. 
MOUNTAINS 
THE ANDEAN REGION' 
On the west the Andes Mountains extend north and south for a 
distance of more than 2,500 miles and into the interior for varying 
distances from 50 to 250 miles. The whole Andean Range is elevated 
and sterile on the east side, except for about 500 miles at the south 
where the range is lower, permitting the moisture-laden winds from 
the Pacific to cross. The resulting precipitation in this section has 
caused the formation of numerous mountain lakes and the growth of 
heavy timber. 
MOUNTAINS OF THE PAMPA (LAS SIERRAS PAMPEANAS) 
This system of mountains occupies a region in northwestern Argen- 
tina approximately 350 miles north and south and 100 miles or more 
east and west. It lies east of the Andean range and north of the 
central portion of Argentina. It is a semitropical and semiarid 
region. The highest peaks show very little snow and practically no 
vegetation. Between the mountains are low, narrow deserts, some- 
times with marshy areas and a few salt lagoons. 
Perhaps the most interesting mountains of Argentina are the Sierras 
of Cordoba near the center of the country. These are generally low, 
below 5,000 feet in height, and many of them are partly clothed with 
vegetation. 
SIERRAS DE BUENOS AIRES 
The lowest of the mountain systems of Argentina is found in the 
southern portion of the Province of Buenos Aires about 250 miles 
from the capital city and 30 to 50 miles from the coast. There are 
two low ranges, one to the east near the coast at Mar del Plata, and 
the other north of Bahia Blanca. Both ranges extend in a southeast 
and northwest direction and are only about 15 miles wide and not 
over 50 miles long. They are made up of low hills, table-lands, 
granite peaks, and ridges, almost destitute of vegetation and usually 
only a few hundred feet in height. 
OTHER ELEVATIONS 
In the Province of Entre Rios, across the La Plata and Parana 
Rivers from Buenos Aires, there are many low hills; and in the 
Territory of Misiones in northeastern Argentina next to Brazil and 
Paraguay there are high hills up to 1,200 feet. Generally speaking, 
the rest of Argentina is flat. 
In general appearance the mountains of Argentina are gray barren 
slopes of disintegrated rock, devoid of vegetable or animal life, except 
in the Provinces of Cordoba, Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy, where 
there is some green vegetation, and the monotonous gray is broken 
by variegated red, yellow, and green clays and rocks. 
