The Argentine Republic: Its Development and Progress

The primitive urban sites were all either on the river or on the historic roads to Chile and Peru. The only towns of the Paraná region at the end of the eighteenth century were Buenos Aires, Santa Fé and Corrientes. As to towns in the interior, Helms's journey in 1778 gives us some idea of their size. Córdoba, at the crossing of the Peru road and the tracks to the province of La Rioja, had then 1,500 white inhabitants and 4,000 blacks. As it was near the Sierra, which provided granite and lime, it had some semblance of architecture, and had paved streets, which struck even the traveller from Buenos Aires. The attraction of its schools was felt over a wide area. We still have a list of students from Paraguay who studied at Córdoba University in the eighteenth century.143 Tucumán and Salta, especially Salta, also were busy centres. Salta had 600 Spanish families and 9,000 inhabitants in all, and its influence extended as far as Peru and Chile. Jujuy, on the other hand, was a very small town. Helms mentions the decay of Santiago del Estero. The trade which had once flourished there had, he says, gone in a different direction. The prosperity of Santiago was, as a matter of fact, connected with traffic on the direct route from Santa Fé to Tucumán, which ceased at the close of the eighteenth century. Santa Fé also was a decaying town at the close of the eighteenth century, and would remain such until the middle of the nineteenth. Its distress was due, not merely to the suspension of its direct trade with Peru, but also to the decay and isolation of Paraguay, which had provided most of its trade and for which it acted as intermediary with the Andean provinces.

The great development of urban life in Argentina dates from the time of the colonization of the Pampean region. The ratio of the urban population has risen considerably during the last twenty-five years. In 1895, 113 centres with more than 2,000 inhabitants comprised 37 per cent. of the total population of Argentina; in 1914 the number of urban centres was 322, and they comprised 53 per cent. of the population. The population of towns with 5,000 to 20,000 inhabitants has increased threefold in twenty years, rising from 312,000 in 1895 to 977,000 in 1914. Large new towns like Rosario and Bahía Blanca were created. The relative sizes of the older towns changed rapidly. Tucumán and Mendoza (121,000 and 92,000 inhabitants) shot beyond Santiago and Salta (22,000 and 28,000 inhabitants). The towns of the north-west, Catamarca and Rioja, are, on the other hand, scarcely developed.

When one examines a chart of the urban population of the Pampean region, one finds that colonization has led to the creation in it of ten chief centres, of from 15,000 to 25,000 inhabitants, and some fifty secondary centres, of from 5,000 to 12,000 inhabitants, which all have a distinctly urban character. This association of urban centres and a scattered agricultural or pastoral population is one of the original features of the way in which the Pampa was peopled. There is no village, or purely rural group. The distribution of these centres on the plain is fairly regular. They are a little closer together in the districts near the Paraná, to the north of Buenos Aires, where the population is older, and where the density, even of the rural population, is at its highest. The territory of the Pampa is divided between the spheres of influence of these various centres. Their radius is as low as ten miles in the north-west, and is about twenty miles in the south of Buenos Aires and twenty-five in the extreme west.

A secondary railway nucleus has generally settled the sites of them (San Francisco-Pergamino, Junin). Their population comprises all the workers needed for the flow of the economic life of the Pampa: agents for the exporters of cereals, merchants who supply the colonies with imported goods—especially agricultural machinery—bankers and insurance companies, surveyors and lawyers. Those which have the best service of trains have a certain amount of industry—mills and breweries—the products of which are absorbed locally. These towns derive all the elements of their life from the Pampean region itself, and have no direct relations either with foreign markets or with other parts of Argentina.144

But the towns of the Pampa which have grown most rapidly are the ports. Rosario rose from 23,000 inhabitants in 1869 to 91,000 in 1895 and to 245,000 in 1914; Bahía Blanca from 9,000 in 1895 to 62,000 in 1914. The actual population of the Pampa ports is not at all in proportion to the part which each plays in the export of Pampean products:—

Some centres, such as Campana, Zarate, San Pedro or San Nicolas, which load up meat or grain in great quantities, have nevertheless remained small towns. Neither the trade in meat nor that in cereals is enough of itself to sustain a busy urban life. In point of fact, the growth of the Pampa ports is mainly connected with their function as importing ports and markets of capital. The close dependence of Bahía Blanca upon Buenos Aires in both these respects seems to forbid it all hope of ever becoming the equal of Rosario. The prosperity of Rosario was founded during the time when Buenos Aires was isolated, between 1853 and 1860; this enabled them to organize an import trade there and to accumulate a nucleus of independent capital.145

The development of Buenos Aires must be studied separately. It does not merely reflect the success of the colonization of the Pampa; it is a phenomenon of a national order. The attraction of Buenos Aires has been felt throughout the whole land. In 1895, of a total population of Argentine birth of 318,000 souls, more than a half—167,000—were born in the provinces.146 The way in which the prosperity of Buenos Aires is bound up, not only with that of the adjacent territory but with that of the whole country, is seen in the stability of the figure representing the number of the inhabitants who have come from foreign lands. While the proportion of foreigners in each of the provinces varies from one census to another, according to the displacements of the stream of colonization, it remains almost the same at Buenos Aires: 496 per 1,000 in 1869, 520 in 1895, 493 in 1914.

The population of the city of Buenos Aires was estimated by Helms in 1788 to be between 24,000 and 30,000. D'Azara put it at 40,000 in 1799. The Revolution did not interrupt its growth. According to the estimate of Woodbine Parish the city had 81,000 inhabitants in 1824. On the other hand, the Rosas Government involved a period of stagnation (90,000 inhabitants in 1855). But after 1855 Buenos Aires resumed its progress, even before the political unity of Argentina was re-established, and has never since relaxed. Its population has doubled almost regularly at intervals of fifteen years: 177,000 in 1869, 433,000 in 1887, 663,000 in 1895, and 1,575,000 in 1914. The latter figure, in fact, is inadequate. Greater Buenos Aires, including the outlying parts, has really 1,990,000 inhabitants.

The site on which the city is built is a regular plateau, sixty-five feet above sea level, cut by flat-bottomed, marshy valleys. The Riachuelo, at the mouth of one of these valleys, provided Buenos Aires with its first port. The low and badly drained lands of the valleys are occupied by the poorest quarters. Their sides, the barrancas, bear the aristocratic residences, and the gardeners have been able to use the sites to great advantage in their plans.

As a whole, the growth of Buenos Aires presents the same feature of regularity, on account of the uniformity of the soil, as the spread of colonization over the plain of the Pampas. The city is distributed in concentric zones, and it is thus a model on a small scale of the distribution of the various types of exploitation on the Pampa which surrounds it. The central nucleus, the business quarter, contains not only the offices, but the warehouses of imported goods. Round this centre, with a radius of one to three miles, are the residential quarters in which the density is greatest (250 to 350 to the hectare). Beyond this the density sinks to less than 200 per hectare and less than fifty on the outskirts. The central quarters developed the maximum density after 1900. Those of the first outer zone have gained greatly between 1904 and 1909. Since the latter date, the progress of these quarters has been arrested in turn, and the recent growth is mainly in the remote working-class suburbs in the south and on the bank of the Riachuelo.

Buenos Aires has preserved in its central district, and reproduces in all its outer districts, the primitive draught-board plan of a Spanish colonial city. This plan is not suited to its needs to-day. The rapid growth of the city and its expansion—the mean density is not more than fifty-four inhabitants to the hectare, as against 360 at Paris—complicate the problem of transport. At the present time the city is considering plans for reconstructing its thoroughfares and making diagonal streets, starting from the centre and following the direction of the main streams of traffic. In this way the city would reproduce the fan-wise distribution of railways over the Pampean plain.

Buenos Aires is the intermediary between the provinces and oversea countries. It has three titles to this profitable part. In the first place, it is the chief centre of the import trade. The merchants of the cities in the interior are customers of the Buenos Aires importers, and are closely bound to them by a system of long-term credit. Buenos Aires is, secondly, the centre for the distribution of the European capital which has been used in the development of the country. Lastly, it divides immigrant workers amongst the provinces, just as it divides capital. As an immigration port its position is unrivalled. The efforts that were made to divert part of the immigrants to Bahía Blanca failed, and direct immigration to the Santa Fé province ceased at the close of the first period of colonization, about 1880. It is also at Buenos Aires that immigrants who are not going to settle in Argentina embark; re-emigration, which is regarded as a national plague by Argentine economists, is another source of profit to the capital. Hence the fortune of Buenos Aires is due in the first place to the close contact between the economic life of Argentina and that of Europe and North America.

But its very growth has led to a gradual change in the part it plays in the interior of the country. In proportion as its population and wealth grew, it became a great national market. The products of the provinces go to it, not merely to meet its own needs as consumer, but in order to be distributed over the entire country. The figures of the cattle trade on the Buenos Aires market are instructive in this respect. From January to July 1919 there were 1,130,000 head of cattle sold, 240,000 being for the supply of the capital and 700,000 for the refrigerators.147 Of the remainder, 120,000 were bought for fattening and 40,000 by the butchers of other towns. The capital of its own which has accumulated at Buenos Aires is invested either in real estate or in industry, which has found great profit both in the development of local consumption and in the great stock of labour provided by immigration. Buenos Aires is not now content to be merely an intermediary between the country and foreign lands. It contributes by its own resources and work to the task of colonization and the supply of manufactured articles to the agricultural and pastoral districts. It is, finally, a luxurious city, with every opportunity for the men who have grown rich by the rise in the price of lands to spend their income, and providing pleasure for the country folk who come up occasionally, tired of their laborious, rough and solitary existence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I give here only the most important and most recent works. A list of the articles I have consulted would be long and uninteresting, while a complete list of those which might have been consulted, and from which information might have been gleaned, is impossible. For a work of this character there is no account of travel, no study of the soil, the climate, or the vegetation, no statistical document or journal or purely historical text, that has not a perfect right to be regarded as a source.

1. Periodicals.

Of the periodicals published in Argentina, and partly or wholly devoted to the study of the land and its development, the principal are:—

Boletin del Instituto Geografico Argentino (Buenos Aires, since 1879; vol. i, 1879, vol. ii, 1881; one vol. yearly from 1881 to 1901; has appeared irregularly since).

Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica Argentina (Buenos Aires, 2 vols, yearly from 1876).

Revista de la Sociedad Geografica Argentina (Buenos Aires, only appeared from 1883 to 1889).

Boletin de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Córdoba (Córdoba, since 1874, 23 vols. to 1918).

The publications of the Buenos Aires and La Plata museums also contain, besides copious anthropological, archæological, palæontological, and historical material, a large number of articles of interest to geographers:—

Anales del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Buenos Aires. Begins 1864, 25 vols., folio and quarto, to 1914.

Anales del Museo de la Plata. First series 1890-1900, second series from 1907.

Revista del Museo de la Plata. From 1890-1891, 17 vols. to 1910-1911.

All these reviews contain especially articles on the parts of the country which were last explored—Patagonia, Chaco, Misiones. They contain little about the parts that were early colonized, though these are not always the best known.

2. Maps.

The maps published in the eighteenth century (D'Anville's map, 1733, in the Lettres édifiantes, 19th collection, Paris, 1734: Bellin's map in vol. ii of the Histoire du Paraguay of the R.P.P.F.X. de Charlevoix, Paris, 1756, 3 vols., etc.) are based upon information collected by the Jesuit missionaries.

D'Azara's map (1809) shows a remarkable advance.

Important corrections of D'Azara's map are found in Woodbine Parish's map (1838).

Brackebusch's two maps are essential documents: Mapa del interior de la Republica Argentina, por el Dr. L. Brackebusch, 1:1,000,000 (Gotha, 1835) and Mapa geologico del interior de la Republica Argentina, 1:1,000,000 (Gotha, 1890).

The results of earlier work have been used in the Atlas de la Republica Argentina construido y publicado por el Instituto Geografico Argentino (Buenos Aires, 1894), which includes a list of its sources.

Since that date many maps have been published: maps of the various provinces and surveys drawn up by the railway companies, the Chile Frontier Commission (see Patagonia), the Mines Division (see Natural Regions), and the Ministerio de Obras Publicas (see River Routes). A brief account of the history of Argentine cartography and a list of maps of provinces will be found in Colonel B. Garcia Aparicio, La carta de la Republica (Anuario del Instituto Geografico Militar, i, 1912, Buenos Aires, pp. 1-27).

The Military Geographical Institute has itself published a large number of maps, either on the basis of fresh surveys or by compiling earlier work, chiefly:—

About thirty sheets on the scale 1:25,000 (Pampean region) since 1904, interesting for studying the relief of the plain.

"Governacion de la Pampa," 1:500,000 (Estado Mayor, 3A Division, Buenos Aires, 1909).

Three sheets on the scale 1:1,000,000 (Buenos Aires, Concordia, and Corrientes). Buenos Aires, provisional edition 1911 of a map of Argentina on the scale 1:1,000,000, which is to comprise twenty-one sheets.

A convenient reference map, though of no scientific value, is the map of the railways, on the scale 1:2,000,000, in three sheets, published in 1910 by the Ministerio de Obras Publicas.

3. Statistics.

A summary of the chief statistics is published annually in The Argentine Yearbook (from 1902 at Buenos Aires; from 1909 at Buenos Aires and London).

The Anuario de la Dirección General de Estadistica, which has appeared since 1880 in one, two or three vols. quarto, gives the figures of trade, immigration, agriculture, railways, navigation, etc. (last volume consulted is for 1914, Buenos Aires, 1915).

In the third volume of the Anuario for 1912 will be found a list of the publications of the Dirección de Estadistica. Besides the Anuario the Dirección publishes a bulletin with commercial statistics (last number consulted 181, "El comercio exterior Argentino en los primeros trimestres de 1918 y 1919," Buenos Aires, 1919). Boletin 176 contains a review of Argentine trade from 1910 to 1917.

The statistical department of the Ministry of Agriculture, under the direction of E. Lahitte, publishes the Boletin Mensual de Estadistica Agricola (last volume consulted, xxi, 1919).

4. General Descriptions.148

The scientific study of this part of South America may be traced back as far as D'Azara. His observations are collected in Don Felix de Azara, Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale, published by Walckenaër (Paris, 1809, 4 vols. in 12^mo and atlas) and Descripción e historia del Paraguay y del Rio de la Plata, published by D. Agustin de Azara (Madrid, 1847, 2 vols. octavo).

The Voyage dans l'Amérique méridionale of Alcide d'Orbigny contains his observations on the Paraná, the province of Corrientes, the Pampa (Parchappe's voyages), and Patagonia (1828). (Historical section, vol. i, Paris, 1835; vol. ii, Paris, 1839-43; vol. iii, third part, geology, Paris, 1842).

Darwin also visited the coast of Patagonia and crossed the Pampa (1833): Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. "Adventure" and "Beagle" ... vol. iii, as Journal and Researches (London, 1839).

Sir Woodbine Parish's work, Buenos Aires and the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata (London, 1838), is remarkably well-informed, and is based upon a thorough study of previous publications and archives.

W. MacKann's Ten Thousand Miles' Ride through the Argentine Republic (London, 1855, 2 vols.) is interesting, and the work of a close observer.

Martin de Moussy, Description géographique et statistique de la Confédération argentine (Paris, 1858, 3 vols. octavo and atlas), is unequal, but full of information.

The work of H. Burmeister, Description physique de la République argentine (Paris, 2 vols., 1876), is of little value, and has been overrated.

Richard Napp, Die Argentinische Republik (Buenos Aires, 1876, I vol. octavo), includes a valuable chapter by P. G. Lorentz on the flora ("Vegetationsverhaeltnisse Argentiniens," pp. 87-149).

The second volume ("Territoire") of the Second recensement de la République argentine (Buenos Aires, 1898) includes a joint geographical study by a number of writers.

Géologie, by J. Valentin.

Climat, by G. G. Davis.

Flore, by E. L. Holmberg.

Some attempt at a general consideration of our geographical knowledge of Argentina has been made by E. A. S. Delachaux, "Las regiones físicas de la Republica Argentina" (Rev. Mus. Plata, xv, 1908, pp. 102-131).

Our physical knowledge of Argentina has been greatly promoted by the work of the Dirección de Minas. The results are summarized in the Memorias de la Dirección general de Minas, Geologia, e Hidrologia, published from 1908 onward (Anales del Ministerio de Agricultura, Sección geologia, mineralogia, y mineria: last volume published for the year 1915, Buenos Aires, vol. xii, No. 2).

Special works are published in the same section of the Anales del Min. Agric., and in the Boletines de la Dirección de Minas, Geologia, e Hidrologia. See, especially, series B (Geologia). These reports and the accompanying maps are the basis of all work on the geography of Argentina. They already cover a great deal of Argentine territory. The work of Keidel, in particular, which is an essential contribution to the geological history of the South-American continent, and that of Windhausen, are largely concerned with physical geography, the study of the relief, and the influence of the climate on the landscape.

A summary of the history of study of the soil of Argentina will be found in E. Hermitte, La geologia y mineria Argentina in 1914 (Tercer Censo Nacional, vol. vii, pp. 407-494).

As to climate: Buenos Aires Ministerio de Agricultura, Servicio Meteorologico Argentino, Historia y Organisacion, con un resumen de los resultados, preparado bajo la dirección de G. G. Davis (Buenos Aires, 1914, quarto), dispenses one from consulting any previous works.

There is a very complete bibliography of works on the botany and geographical botany of Argentina in F. Kurtz, "Essai d'une bibliographie botanique de l'Argentine" (2nd edition, Bol. Acad. Nac. Ciencias Córdoba, xx, 1915, pp. 369-467).

There is a convenient summary of our knowledge of the primitive population in Felix F. Outes and Carlos Bruch, Los aborigenes de la Rep. argentina (Buenos Aires, 1910).

5. North-West Argentina.

The most complete general work on irrigation is that of E. A. Soldano, La irrigación en la argentina (Buenos Aires, 1910, octavo). See also C. Wouters, "La irrigación en el valle de Lerma" (An. Soc. Cient. Argentina, lxvi, 1908, pp. 117-145).

The best description of the Puna de Atacama and the country of the Valles is in Eric Boman, "Antiquités de la région andine de la Republique Argentine et du désert d'Atacama" (Mission scientifique G. de Crequi, Montfort, et E. Senechal de la Grange, Paris, 1908, 2 vols.).

L. Brackebusch, "Ueber die Bodensverhaeltnisse des nordwestlichen Teiles der Argentinischen Republik mit Bezugnahme auf die Vegetation" (Petermann's Mitteilungen, 1893, p. 153) is a general description of the whole of north-western Argentina; but Brackebusch's description of his journey, "Viaje a la provincia de Jujuy" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., iv, 1883, pp. 9-17, 204-211, and 217-226) is fresher and more useful.

I have mentioned in the note to p. 40 Bodenbender's work on the province of La Rioja.

Of the various articles, from all quarters, on North-Western Argentina the following may be noticed:—

J. B. Ambrosetti, "Viaje a la Puna de Atacama de Salta a Caurchari" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., xxi, 1900, pp. 87-116).

F. Kühn, "Descripción del camino desde Rosario de Lerma hasta Cachi" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., xxiv, 1910, pp. 42-50).

H. Seckt, "Contribución al conocimiento de la vegetación del Nordeste de la Rep. Arg.—Valles de Calchaqui y Puna de Atacama" (An. Soc. Cient. Arg., lxxiv, 1912, pp. 185-225).

Juan F. Barnabe, "Informe sobre el distrito minero de Tinogasta" (An. Min. Agric., Seccion Geol. Mineralogia y Mineria, x, No. 4, Buenos Aires, 1915).

On the Puna de Atacama:

L. Caplain, "Informe sobre el estado de la mineria en el Territorio de los Andes" (An. Min. Agric., Seccion Geol. Mineralogia y Mineria, vii, No. 1, Buenos Aires, 1912).

On the sub-Andean chains:—

Guido Bonarelli, "Las Sierras subandinas del Alto y Aguaragüe y los yacimientos petroliferos del distrito minero de Tartagal" (ibid., viii, No. 4, Buenos Aires, 1913). See also Dirección General de Minas, Geol., e Hidrol, Boletin, series B, No. 9 (Buenos Aires, 1914).

On the Chaco Salteño:—

L. Arnaud, "Expedición al Chaco" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., vi, 1885, pp. 201-210).

On the part of the San Luis province that lies in the zone of the scrub:—

Avé-Lallemant, "Datos orograficos e hidrograficos sobre la Provincia de San Luis" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., v, 1884, pp. 191-196, and 222-224), and "Apuntes sobre represas y baldes en San Luis" (An. Soc. Cient. Arg., xi, 1881, pp. 178-188).

A. L. Cravetti, "Investigación agricola en la Provincia de San Luis" (Buenos Aires, 1904, An. Min. Agric., Sección Agric., Botanica, y Agronomia, vol. i, No. 5).

On the scrub south of Mar Chiquita:—

H. Frank, "La repoblación forestal en la region de la Mar Chiquita" (Bol. Dep. gen. Agric. y Ganaderia, Prov. Córdoba, ii, 1912, pp. 52-57), and "Contribución al conocimiento de la Mar Chiquita" (ibid., pp. 87-101).

6. Tucumán and Mendoza.

On Tucumán see Emilio Lahitte, La industria azucarera, apuntes de actualidad (Buenos Aires, 1902).

The best source of the economic history of the sugar industry is the file of the Revista azucarera ("organa de los cultivadores de caña y fabricantes de azucar," Buenos Aires).

On Mendoza, "Investigación vinicola" (Buenos Aires, 1903, Anales, Min. Agric., Sección Comercio, Industrias, y Economia, i, No. 1).

7. Forestry Industries.

Rudolf Leutgens, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Quebracho-Gebietes in Argentinien und Paraguay" (Mitteil. Geogr. Ges. Hamburg, xxv, 1911, pp. 1-70).

8. Patagonia.

A. The Tableland.

Apart from Villarino's journey on the Rio Negro in the eighteenth century, the first journey across the Patagonian tableland is that of G. Chaworth Musters, At Home with the Patagonians (London, 1871).

In the early volumes of the Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent. will be found the results of various explorations between 1878 and 1885 by Argentine travellers.

With this group of documents, which provided the first material for his conclusions, we may associate the geological studies of Florentino Ameghino, "L'âge des formations sédimentaires de Patagonie" (An. Soc. Cient. Argentina, l, 1900, pp. 109-130, 145-160, and 209-229; li, 1901, pp. 20-39 and 65-90; lii, 1901, pp. 189-197 and 244-250; liii, 1902, pp. 161-181, 220-249 and 282-342) and "Les formations sédimentaires du crétacé supérieur et du tertiaire en Patagonie" (An. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, series ii, vol. viii, 1906, pp. 1-568).

On the southern part of Patagonia, south of 50° S. lat.:—

Svenska Expeditionen till Magellanslaenderna (Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Schwedischen Expedition nach den Magellans Laendern, 1895-1897, unter Leitung von Dr. Otto Nordenskjoeld, Band I, Geologie, Geographie und Anthropologie, Stockholm, 1907).

On the Magellan region and that of the Santa Cruz:—

Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896-9, i, J. B. Hatcher, Narrative of the Expeditions, Geography of Southern Patagonia (Princeton and Stuttgart, 1903).

On the Rio Negro district:—

S. Roth, "Apuntes sobre la Geologia y la Paleontologia de las Territorios del Rio Negro y Neuquen" (Rev. Mus. Plata, ix, 1899, pp. 141-196).

Of more recent works we must especially notice those of the engineers of the Dirección de Minas:—

R. Stappenbeck y F. Reichert, "Informe preliminar relativo a la parte sudeste del Territorio del Chubut" (An. Min. Agric., Sección Geol. Mineral., y Minas, vol. ix, No. 1, Buenos Aires, 1909).

Ricardo Wichmann, various studies of the eastern part of the plateau of the Rio Negro (ibid., xiii, Nos. 1, 3 and 4, Buenos Aires, 1918 and 1919).

A. Windhausen, studies on the Rio Negro and the Neuquen (ibid., x, No. 1, Buenos Aires, 1914). The geological results of Windhausen's work are summarized in articles that appeared in the American Journal of Science (4th series, xlv, 1918, pp. 1-53) and in the Bol. Acad. Nac. Ciencias Córdoba (xxiii, 1918, pp. 97-128 and 319-364).

We must add G. Rivereto, "La valle del Rio Negro" (Bol. Soc. Geologica Ital., xxxi, 1912, pp. 181-237, and xxxii, 1913, pp. 101-142).

B. The Andes.

Numerous articles in the Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent. and the An. Soc. Cient. Argentina, immediately after the military expedition of 1879-1880 (Host, Avé-Lallemant, etc.).

A detailed study of the Andean region was undertaken at the time of the frontier-quarrel between Argentina and Chile, and this led to a number of publications. The work done by the Argentinians under F. P. Moreno is used in Frontera Argentina-Chilena, Memoria presentada al tribunal nombrado por el Gobernio de su Majestad Britanica (London, 1902, 2 vols. quarto, 1 vol. maps, and 1 vol. photographs), and in the Breve Replica a la memoria Chilena (London, 1 vol. quarto, 1902). See a summary of the results in L. Gallois, "Les Andes de Patagonie" (Annales de Géographie, x, 1901, pp. 232-259).

In the Revista and the Anales of the La Plata Museum will be found part of the research made during this period (1897-1900) by Argentine experts; especially the work of Burckhardt and Wehrli on the Neuquen Cordillera. The Chilean work which served as the basis of the Statement presented on behalf of Chile in reply to the Argentine Report (London, 1902, 4 vols. and 2 vols. as appendices) is, on the whole, less valuable.

Of later travellers we must mention P. D. Quensel, "On the influence of the Ice Age on the continental watershed of Patagonia" (Bull. Geol. Inst. Univ. Upsala, ix, 1908-9, pp. 60-92), and "Geologisch-petrographische studien in der Patagonischen Cordillera" (ibid., xi, 1912, pp. 1-114).

Very important surveys in the Cordillera and on the plateau of the Rio Negro were made under the direction of Bailey Willis (Northern Patagonia, Ministry of Public Works, Bureau of Railways, Argentine Republic; text and maps by the Comisión de Estudios hidrologicos, Bailey Willis Director, 1911-1914, New York, 1914, 1 vol and atlas).

On the Patagonian forest (Argentine slope from 40° S. lat. to Cape Horn) see Max Rothkugel, Los Bosques Patagonicos (Minist. Agric., Dirección Gen. Agric. y Defensa Agricola: Officina de Bosques y Yerbales, Buenos Aires, 1916).

9. The Pampean Region.

The occupation of the western part of the Pampa between 1875 and 1880 led to a fairly large amount of research. The most important work is the Informe oficial de la Comisión cientifica agregada al Estado Mayor General de la Expedición al Rio Negro, vol. iii, Geologia, by Dr. Ad. Doering (Buenos Aires, 1882). We must also notice G. Avé-Lallemant, "Excursión al Territorio indio del Sud" (Bol. Inst. Geogr. Argent., ii, 1881, pp. 41-49); D. Dupont, "Notas geograficas sobre el païs de los Ranqueles" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., 1790, pp. 47-56); and Est. Zeballos, Descripción amena de la Republica Argentina, vol. i, Viaje al païs de las Araucanos (Buenos Aires, 1881).

Of general works on the Pampa and the Pampean deposits:

Fl. Ameghino, La formación Pampeana (Paris and Buenos Aires, 1881), and "Las formaciones sedimentarias de la región litoral de Mar del Plata y Chapalmalan" (An. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, series ii, vol. x, 1908, pp. 348-428).

G. Bodenbender, "La cuenca del valle del rio Primero en Córdoba: Descripción geologica del valle del rio Primero desde la Sierra de Córdoba hasta la Mar Chiquita" (Bol. Acad. Nac. Ciencias Córdoba, xii, 1890, pp. 1-54); and "Die Pampa Ebene in Osten der Sierra von Córdoba in Argentinien" (Petermann's Mitteilungen, 1893, pp. 201-237 and 258-264).

Santiago Roth, "Beobachtungen ueber Entstehung und Alter der Pampasformationen in Argentinien" (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geol. Ges., xi, 1888, pp. 375-464); "Beitrag zur Gliederung der Sedimentablagerungen in Patagonien und der Pampas Region" (Neues Jahrbuch für Min., Geol., und Paläont., Beilage, Band xxvi, Stuttgart, 1908, pp. 92-150); and "La construcción de un Canal de Bahía Blanca a las provincias andinas bajo el punto de vista hidrogeologico" (Rev. Museo de la Plata, xvi, 1909).

Nouvelles recherches sur la formation pampéenne et l'homme fossile de la Republique argentine. A collection of scientific articles published by R. Lehmann-Nitsche (Rev. Mus. Plata, xiv, 1907, pp. 143-488), which contains, especially, one by C. Burckhardt, "La formation pampéenne de Buenos Aires et Santa Fé," and one by Ad. Doering, "La formation pampéenne de Córdoba."

Ales Hrdlicka, Early Man in South America (Smithsonian Institution, Bull. 52, Washington, 1912—geological part by Bailey Willis).

On the district of the Central Pampa, R. Stappenbeck, "Investigaciones hidrogeologicas de los valles de Chapalco y Quehuë y sus alrededores" (Min. Agric., Dir. Gen. Minas, Geol., e Hidrol., Bol. No. 4, Buenos Aires, 1913).

On various points in detail one may consult:—

Lavalle y Medici, "Las nivelaciones de la Provincia" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., vii, 1866, pp. 57-71).

P. A. Bovet, El Problema de los Medanos en el Pais (Buenos Aires, 1910).

R. Velasco, "Los Medanos de la Provincia de Córdoba" (Bol. Dep. Gen. Agric. y Ganaderia, Prov. Córdoba, i, pp. 155-173).

Among descriptions of an economic character, which are generally of poor value, we must make an exception in favour of Emile Daireaux, La vie et les moeurs à la Plata (Paris, 1889).

A few useful notes on colonization will be found in Teod. Morsbah, "Estudios economicos sobre el Sud de la Provincia de Buenos Aires" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., ix, 1888, pp. 143-151) and in E. Segui, "La provincia de Buenos Aires" (Bol. Inst. Geog. Argent., xix, 1898, pp. 419-440).

A very useful summary of the results of a general inquiry into agriculture will be found in "Investigación agricola en la Rep. argent." (Anales Min. Agric. Agronomia, vol. i, No. 1, 2 and 3, Buenos Aires, 1904: "Preliminares," by Carlos D. Girola, "Investigación agricola en la region septentrional de la Provincia de Buenos Aires," by Ricardo J. Huergo, and "Investigación agricola en la Provincia de Santa Fé," by Hugo Miatello).

With this inquiry is associated G. D. Girola, El cultivo del trigo en la provincia de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1904).

Agricultural censuses have been taken repeatedly. For 1888 F. Latzina, L'agriculture et le bétail dans la République argentine (Paris, 1889). For 1895 (Secundo censo, see Population) the results are given in C. P. Salas, Bureau central de Statistique de la province de Buenos Aires and L'agriculture, l'élevage, et le commerce dans la province en 1895 (La Plata, 1897; maps by Delachaux). For 1908, Censo agro-pecuario nacional. La ganaderia y la agricultura en 1908 (Buenos Aires, 3 vols. quarto, 1909). Vol. iii contains a series of monographs dealing not only with the Pampean region, but the economic history of the whole country.

For 1914 (Tercer censo, see Population) the publication of vol. v, relating to agriculture, is unfortunately delayed. There is also available a census of cattle made in 1915 for the Buenos Aires province, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Min. Obras Publicas, Censo Ganadero (1916).

10. The Railways.

For the history of the railways see Rebuelto, "Historia del desarollo de los ferrocarriles argentinas" (Bol. Obras Publicas, vol. v, 1911, pp. 113-172, vol. vi, 1913, pp. 1-48 and 81-110, and vol. viii, 1913, pp. 1-32), and the entire series of the Boletin de Obras Publicas.

A sort of annual of the Argentine railways has been published every year since 1906 under the title Killik's Argentine Railway Manual (London, 1 vol. with map, last issue 1918).

11. The Paraná.

E. A. S. Delachaux, "Los problemas geograficos del territorio Argentino" (Rev. Univ. Buenos Aires, 1906, v), includes a study of the floods of the Paraná.

The chief source is the memoir of Repossini, "Memoria sobre el rio Paraná" (Bol. Obras Publicas, vol. vi, 1912, pp. 141-168 and 254-264, vol. vii, 1912, pp. 31-48 and 163-186, and vol. viii, 1913, pp. 33-99). It contains on a reduced scale the map issued by the Ministry of Public Works, which is not available in France. The defect is supplied by the English Admiralty Charts, "Rio de la Plata," 1869 (No. 2544 in the Catalogue of Admiralty Charts), and "River Paraná," parts i, ii, iii, iv, v, and vi of 1905 (Nos. 1982/A and 1982/B).

There is an interesting economic summary in W. S. Barclay, "The River Paraná, an economic survey" (Geogr. Journal, xxxiii, 1909, pp. 1-10).

On the estuary:—

Alej. Foster, "Regimen del Rio de la Plata y su corrección" (An. Soc. Cient. Argent., lii, 1901, pp. 209-234).

G. Rovereto, "Studi di geomorfologia argentina," ii, "Il rio della Plata" (Bol. Soc. Geol. Ital., xxx, 1911).

12. Population.

Besides municipal and provincial censuses, there have been three general censuses:

First census made in 1869, one folio volume published in 1872. I have only been able to consult Oficina del Censo. Informe sobre la operación y resultado del Primer censo argentino (Buenos Aires, 1870, octavo).

Second census of the Argentine Republic, May 10, 1895 (2 vols, quarto, Buenos Aires, 1898).

Tercer Censo Nacional levantado el 1º de junio de 1914 (10 vols, quarto, Buenos Aires, 1916-1917). Only the fifth volume, on agriculture, is not yet to hand.

A geographical interpretation of the distribution of the population was attempted by E. A. S. Delachaux, "La población de la Rep. Argent." (Rev. Univ. Buenos Aires, iii, 1905).

NOTES

1 I take the opportunity to thank M. J. B. Teran, who undertook to edit these chapters, and to express, with him, my satisfaction that events have falsified his rather pessimistic predictions as regards the author.

2 See E. A. S. Delachaux, "Las regiones fisicas físicas de la República República Argentina," Rev. Museo Plata, XV, 1908, pp. 102-131.

3 Holmberg, "La Flora de la Republica República Argentina," in the Secundo Censo de la Republica República Argentina, vol. i. (Buenos Aires, 1898).

4 Diario de la expedition de 1778 a las Salinas (Coll. de Angelis, iv.).

5 F. de Azara, Diario de un reconocimiento de las guardias y fortines que guarnecen la linea frontera de Republica Argentina (1796, Coll. de Angelis, vol. vi.). The documents collected by de Angelis show clearly that there had been some idea in the middle of the eighteenth century of occupying the whole plain to the east of the Sierra de Tandil. These ideas of expansion, of which D'Azara's plan is another instance, were interrupted by the Revolution (Diario de D. Pedro Pablo Pabon, Coll. de Angelis, iv. etc.).

6 M. J. Olascoaga gives (La conquête de la Pampa: Recueil de documents relatifs à la campagne du Rio Negro, Buenos Aires, 1881) valuable documents concerning both the details of the fight with the Indians and the distribution of their invernadas (common lands) in the region of the Pampas. Olascoaga translates it "winter quarters"; it was pasturage on which they kept their cattle and from which they set out on their expeditions.

7 See Thomas J. Hutchinson, Buenos Aires and Argentine Gleanings.

8 See Geronimo de la Serna, "Expedición militar al Chaco," Bol. I, Geog. Argentino, xv. 1894, pp. 115-79.

9 Nuevo plan de fronteras de la provincia de la Republica Argentina (Coll. de Angelis, vol. vi).

10 Letter to the Minister of War, October 19, 1875.

11 See the curious picture, which Hutchinson gives us, of military life on the Rio Salado de Santiago about the middle of the nineteenth century.

12 Mitre, Historia de Belgrano, I, ch. i. pp. 4 and 5.

13 D. Gregorio Funes, Ensayo de la historia civil del Paraguay, Buenos Aires, y Tucumán (Buenos Aires, 3 vols., 1816).

14 The Woodbine Parish map (1839) puts Tinogasta eighty miles out of its proper position, at the very foot of the Come Caballos range, thus reducing by one half its distance from Copiapo, on the Chilean slope.

15 B. Poncel, Mes itinéraires dans les Provinces du Rio de la Plata, Province de Catamarca (Paris, 1864).

16 This series, stretching from the Permian to the Tertiary, also includes, especially in the region of the sub-Andean chains, on the fringe of the Chaco, a number of marine strata (see Bonarelli, Las sierras subandinas del Alto y Aguaragüe y los yacimientos petroliferos del distrito minero de Tartagal "Ann. Min. Agric.," Seccion Geologia, Mineralogia, y Mineria, viii. No. 4: Buenos Aires, 1913).

17 G. Bodenbender, Parte meridional de la Provincia de la Rioja y regiones limitrofes (Ann. Min. Agric., Seccion Geol., Minerol., y Mineria, vii. No. 3: Buenos Aires, 1912).

18 Eric Boman, Antiquités de la région andine de la République Argentine et de la Puna de Atacama: Mission scient. G. de Créqui-Montfort et E. Sénéchal de la Grange (Paris, vols. i. and ii. 1908).

19 Belmar, Les provinces de la Fédération argentine (Paris, 1856).

20 See Brackebusch, "Viaje a la provincia de Jujuy," Bol. Instit. Geog. Argent., iv. 1883, pp. 9-17.

21 Memorias sobre el estado rural del rio de la Plata en 1801, Escritos postumos de D. Felix de Azara, published by D. Augustin de Azara (Madrid, 1847).

22 A. Rengger, Reise nach Paraguay in den Jahren 1818 bis 1826 (Aarau, 1835).

23 The fattening of cattle for Chile was no longer done in the invernadas of Mendoza at the beginning of the nineteenth century. See an article on Mendoza in the Telegrafo Mercantil, January 31, 1802, which tells of the development of ranches on the Tunuyan. Mendoza and San Juan were their only markets, and they did not sell cattle to Chile.

24 T. J. Hutchinson, Buenos Aires y otras Provincias argentinas (translated by L. Varela, Buenos Aires, 1866).

25 Azcarate de Biscay, quoted in H. Gibson, La evolucion ganadera in Censo agropecuario nacional, Buenos Aires, 1909, vol. iii.

26 A. Z. Helms, Voyage dans l'Amérique méridionale (Paris, 1812). The journey was in 1788.

27 Imperfect statistics given by Poncel for the province of Catamarca give us some idea of the respective shares of the various Andean districts in the export of Argentine cattle about the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1855 the province of Catamarca sold 2,700 head of cattle (1,300 to Chile, 200 to Bolivia, 600 to San Juan and Mendoza), 3,200 mules (2,500 to Bolivia 600 to Salta—which also were for Bolivia), and 1,200 asses (700 to Bolivia and 400 to Salta).

28 For instance, herds of mules are taken from Abrapampa, on the line of the Quiaca, to the saltpetre mines of Antofágasta, whereas every effort to convey cattle by this route has failed.

29 There is an interesting study of fairs on the elevated tableland by G. M. Wrigley, "Fairs of the Central Andes," in the Geographical Review (New York), vii. 1919, pp. 65-80.

30 On Aconcagua also the moist forest serves as winter pasture for the cattle from the ranches.

31 The title of the merced often shows clearly the attraction which the springs at the foot of the Sierra had for colonists. The land of the merced of Ulapes is defined thus: "The spring and the land within two leagues of it in every direction." The spring is the centre. There its protecting deities live.

32 The higher valleys of Aconcagua offer inexhaustible interest to the visitor. At Sancho (Pucara valley) there is a group of Italian colonists who grow maize and wheat: a unique fact, I believe, in the whole of this part of Argentina. The Tafi valley is mainly pastoral, the pastures of the valley being used in summer and the forest for winter pasture.

33 In 1894 it was calculated that ground that was not yet cleared was worth 100 to 150 piastres a hectare at Cruz Alta, and the cost of clearing 150 to 200 piastres, whereas in the moist forest at the foot of the Sierra the land was worth only 75 to 100 piastres, the cost of clearing it was double (300 to 350 piastres).

34 Except, perhaps, in Barbadoes.

35 A few convoys of cattle still use the Uspallata road, especially over the Espinacito pass in the Cordillera de San Juan.

36 There are at present in the Mendoza province 275,000 hectares with a definitive right, and 303,000 with an eventual right. The concessions fed by the Diamante and the Atuel at San Rafaël, which amount to 120,000 hectares with a definitive right and 150,000 with an eventual right, are not yet entirely developed.

37 There are more than 6,000 owners at San Juan to 91,000 hectares, and more than 9,000 at Mendoza (zone of the rivers Mendoza and Tunuyan) to 130,000 hectares (statistics compiled in 1899).

38 The difference is much greater at a distance from the Cuyo province. Catamarca, which specializes in the production of grapes for the table, is invaded by buyers from Buenos Aires, and begins to send grapes in December, two full months before the harvest begins in Mendoza.

39 While the cultivation of the cane has, for the most part, become dependent upon the sugar industry, which represents large capital, wine-making is, on the contrary, usually regarded as merely an annex of wine-growing.

40 More recent statistics are not to hand. The proportion differs a little every year according to the prices of wine and grapes.

41 Besides the causes of a geographical nature which I have indicated, the separation of cultivation from wine-making has other economic grounds, but they do not fall within the range of this book. The large bodega is better situated than the small cultivator for organizing the sale of his wines on the distant market of Buenos Aires. Also, the bodegueros alone are able to meet the competition of Buenos Aires merchants who import European wines and make adulterated wines.

42 Mendoza is further protected by law against fraud. This legislation is partly national and partly provincial. The national law, which takes into account the interests of the merchants of Buenos Aires, permits the manufacture of artificial wines. The provincial law, in the special interests of the productive districts, is more stringent. It prohibits the manufacture of artificial wines. It also fixes the minimum percentage of alcohol, and prevents the dispatch from Mendoza to Buenos Aires of alcoholic wines to mix with must. Finally, it defends the viñatero against the bodeguero by fixing the quantity of grapes to be used in making a hectolitre of wine and so prevents fraud at the bodega.

43 Especially during the crisis of 1902-3.

44 Historia de Abiponibus.

45 See the chapter on population.

46 Val. Virasaro, "Los esteros y lagunas del Ibera" in Bol. Instit. Geog. Argent. (vi. 1887; pp. 305-31).

47 Diario de la navegacion y reconocimiento del Rio Tibicuari (Coll. de Angelis, vol. ii.).

48 It is more and more necessary to deal with the extract of the quebracho on the spot the further north one goes toward the interior of the continent because the freights to the exporting ports rise higher and higher.

49 In Brazil the saw-mills for the araucarian pines are established along the São Paolo-Rio Grande Railway.

50 This anomaly is doubtless due to the proximity of the sea and the respite of the westerly winds in winter. The coast, with its cold waters and the land-winds causing the deeper water to rise, has a special climate of fogs and mists. These, which remind us of the garuas of the coast of Peru, do not penetrate into the interior.

51 The calcareous flag-stone of La Tosca, which is characteristic of the south-west province of the plain of the Pampa, stretches in the south as far as the Rio Negro in the coast-district. On the other hand, it is almost entirely absent a hundred miles to the west, between the Colorado and the Rio Negro, along the line of the railway from Fortin Uno to Choele Choel.

52 G. Rovereto, "Studi di geomorfologia argentina: la valle del Rio Negro," Bull. Soc. Geol. Ital., xxxi. 1912, pp. 101-142 and 181-237.

53 The great mass of the Patagonian Andes differs considerably in geological structure from the Argentinian Andes. The Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and the lofty chains of the pre-Cordillera cease at 36° S. lat. The Mesozoic beds—variegated breccie and porphyritic conglomerates, sandstones, limestones, and marls—which form the western slope of the Andes in central Chile, pass to the eastern slope at 35° S. lat., where they develop in regular folds, in the direction south-south-east, obliquely to the general line of the range. These folds account for the orientation of the interior valleys, which is remarkably uniform from the Rio Negro to the Collon Cura. They pass in the south-west under the sandstones of the tableland. West of this sedimentary zone, the zone of the sub-Andean granites and diorites, which have not been exposed further north except at the base of the western slope, opens out in the Patagonian Andes, of which it is the main body between Lake Lacar and the Gulf of Ultima Esperanza. In fine, the Patagonian Andes are characterised by volcanic formations. They are seen on the eastern slope about 36° S. lat., in the lava-flows and ashes of Payen and Tromen. Further south volcanoes with acid lava and characteristic cones are restricted to the central zone (Lanin, etc.) and the Chilean flank, but flows of fluid basic lava cover enormous stretches at the eastern fringe of the Andes, and they have spread over a good deal of the Patagonian tableland outside the Andean region.

54 Pablo Groeber, Informe sobra las causas que han producido las crecientes del Rio Colarado en 1914. Dir. Gen. de Minas, Geol. e Hidrol., Bol. No. 11, series B, Geologia (Buenos Aires, 1916).

55 Most of the lacustrine depressions are continued eastward across the Patagonian tableland in the shape of distinct valleys. The eastern part of the Straits of Magellan is merely a submerged valley on the axis of Otway Water. Useless Bay also is continued eastward by the hollow which ends in the Bay of San Sebastian. Sometimes the waters of the lakes flow eastward, toward the Atlantic, along these valleys. Generally, however, the lakes of the western slope are drained on the west by means of narrow defiles across the Cordillera, or on the north and south by rivers which follow the sub-Andean depression and thread them together in the manner of a rosary. The valley which joins the lake to the Atlantic is in those cases a dead valley, and the inter-oceanic dividing line of the waters is marked by the frontal moraine of the old glacier, which confines the lake on the east. This arrangement is found, with surprising regularity, from the Alumine and the Lacar to the Neuquen, and as far as Lake Buenos Aires and the Seno de la Ultima Esperanza at Santa Cruz. The capture of the waters of the eastern slope by the rivers of the Pacific across the Cordillera is fairly ancient, and certainly pre-glacial. But during the Glacial Period the glaciers obstructed the transverse valleys of the Cordillera, and the waters of the eastern slope found their way to the Atlantic once more. With the retreat of the glaciers the valleys of the Cordillera were successively cleared. The lakes, dammed by the glaciers, were suddenly released and their level lowered. The valleys of the Patagonian tableland were finally abandoned, and the topographical accident of secondary importance, which the ancient frontal moraine of the glacier represents, came to mark the limit of the domain of the Pacific. The freshness of the contours of the dead valleys of Patagonia bears witness to the recent date of this conquest, which was too sudden or rapid to be called a "capture" in the proper sense. It has not been accomplished everywhere. From Lake San Martin to Lake Buenos Aires all the lakes of the eastern slope are drained into the Pacific by rivers which flow into the Culen fiord. But further south, Lakes Viedma and Argentino are still tributaries of the Atlantic. They correspond to the zone of the Patagonian Andes which is still covered by inland ice. To the north, in the basin of the Puelo and the Yelcho, where the trans-Andean valleys long ago ceased to be obstructed by ice, the lakes of the eastern slope which drain toward the Pacific are small in size. Their level to-day is much lower than it used to be, and a network of streams has developed east of them, on the earlier lacustrine region, which is now dry.

56 Diario de D. Basilio Villarino del reconocimiento que hizo del Rio Negro en el año de 1782 (Coll. de Angelis, vi).

57 It is Woodbine Parish who corrects Villarino's mistake in confusing the Neuquen, at its confluence with the Limay, with the Rio Diamante, known in the south of the Mendoza province.

58 Carlos M. Moyano, "Informe sobre un viaje a traves de la Patagonia," Bol. Instit. Geog. Argent., ii. 1881, pp. 1-35.

59 W. Vallentin, Chubut (Berlin, 1906).

60 J. Popper, "Exploracion de la Tierra del Fuego," Bol. Instit. Geog. Argent., viii. 1887, pp. 74-93.

61 Informe de D. Basilio Villarino à Fr. de Viedma, Coll. de Angelis, v.

62 L. J. Fontana, "Exploracion en la Patagonia austral," Bol. Instit. Geog. Argent., vii, 1886, pp. 223-239.