Southern Patagonia: As Portrayed in Recent Literature

Abstract

HIRTY years ago thousands of people who had rushed to the southern extremity of South America in search of gold turned to sheep raising as a more certain means of making a living. Today we perceive a tendency toward reversal of this trend. Not that new gold deposits have been found in this region-actually we know little more about them-but the world itself has changeda world that finds itself today with plenty of sheep and a shortage of the gold necessary to distribute those sheep, a world that needs gold far more than it needs mutton or wool or any other commodity. Indications are not wanting that this forgotten region is upon the threshold of return to public interest. Of all the regions of the earth's temperate zones it is doubtful whether there remains a single one of which man's knowledge is so incomplete as of that of the southern Patagonian Andes from the forty-fifth parallel of latitude to the outermost islands of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Yet we can hardly call this land of mystery remote: not one of its I8o,ooo odd square miles of mainland and islands is 200 miles distant from one of the New World's oldest trade routes. Nor has there been a dearth of interest in it. Between Magellan's discovery of the strait in I520 and the visit of the Beagle in I832 no fewer than 81 expeditions representing many nations have explored there. Between the voyage of the Beagle and the publication of Charles Darwin's Diary of the Voyage of H. M. S. 'Beagle' last year' scores of books and articles in various languages have appeared. Yet one needs only to glance over the most recent literature to realize how little is actually known, and even the latest maps disclose vast areas marked inexplorado. But, while the region has fallen into further economic obscurity with the replacement of the Strait of Magellan as a maritime channel by the Panama Canal, a new impetus seems to have been given to scientific exploration. To mention one event of importance: the most extensive of Patagonia's great inland ice fields was traversed for the first time by De Agostini in I93Itruly a noteworthy achievement. We may well begin our discussion with the problem of the present glaciation of Patagonia.