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AREA AND POPULATION.

Occupying the southeastern portion of South America, the Argentine Republic extends from 21° to 55° south latitude and lies between 53° and 71° 17' west longitude, and is bounded north by Bolivia, east by Paraguay, Brazil, Uraguay, and the Atlantic; south by the Atlantic, and west by Chile. Its length is about 2,351 statute miles and its average breadth a little over 475. The total area, as given in Mulhall's Handbook of the River Plate, an Argentine authority, and in recent Government publications, is 1,125,086 square miles, almost corresponding in extent with the compact area in this country included in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas, which united contain 1,122,685, or 2,401 square miles less. It may be further noted by way of comparison that the estimated area of the Argentine Republic is greater by 298,242 square miles than was that of the whole United States in 1789. But as the Argentine Republic now extends to the southern end of the continent, and from the Atlantic nearly to the Pacific, its progress can not be marked by any considerable expansion of territory, all boundary disputes being now settled, and Brazil being interested in the statu quo. The population of the provinces was ascertained by the census of 1869 to be 1,736,922, excluding the territories. An official estimate was made in 1887, which gave the population of the whole country as shown in the following table, which also gives the names and positions of the several provinces, names of the territories and capital, and the areas of the several principal divisions, viz:

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125, 612

50,000

Rioja..

31, 500

100, 000

Chaco..

Catamarca

San Juan..

Mendoza

31, 500

130,000

Pampa

191, 842

40,000

29,700

125,000

Rio Negro..

54,000

160,000

Neuquen.

Central:

Chubut

268, 000

30,000

Córdoba...

54,000

380,000

Santa Cruz..

San Luis

18, 000

100, 000

Tierra del Fuego.

Santiago del Estero

31, 500

160,000

Tucuman

13, 500

210,000

Grand total

Northern:

1, 125, 086 4, 066, 492

Salta

45,000

200, 000

From census of these for 1890.

By the foregoing it would appear that the population of the provinces averages about 7.5 to the square mile, and of the territories .2; a general average of about 3.6.

In 1869, when the last census was taken, the whole population of the Republic may be said to have been in the provinces. During the six years preceding the estimate which gives the last population statistics

there was a great augmentation, which continued until 1889, due more to organized and encouraged immigration than to all other causes, which accounts for the rapid doubling of the population. The numbers of immigrants arriving during the nine years from and including 1882 were as follows, according to official reports, viz:

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Of the immigrants about 46 per cent are Italians, 25 per cent French, 16 per cent Spaniards, and the remaining 13 per cent are principally English, Germans, Irish, and Scotch. During the crisis in industrial and financial matters, which began to be felt heavily in 1890, 71,864 immigrants emigrated, besides those still unreported for 1891. Many went to Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Still the foreign-born element is greatly prevalent in the Republic, and will favorably influence its further though slower development when affairs reach a firmer basis, and mainly because this element consists of people, principally in colonies or operating in social union, who pursue agricultural industries of much more diversified character and with more system and perseverance than are known to natives of the same relative position and opportunities.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

The most detailed description of the topographical features of the Argentine Republic, and the most accurate in its details, seems to be that presented in a work of Dr. H. Burmeister, after ten years' observation. That gentleman is director of the public museum in Buenos Ayres, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, and of several other scientific bodies, and his work was published both in German and French.* From the latter edition the following description is to a considerable extent drawn:

The general form of the surface of the larger part of the Republic is that of a plain, inclined from northwest to southeast. It reaches its greatest elevation among the foothills of the Andes, at from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level, and thence gradually descends toward the basins of the Paraguay and Paraná Rivers, where, at latitude 220 south, its elevation is only 300 feet, further descending to sea level upon the shores of the estuary of La Plata.

French edition, Description Physique de la Republique Argentine, 2 vols., Paris, 1876. Dr. Burmeister occupies a scientific position in South America similar to that once held by Prof. Louis Agassiz in the United States,

Along the western margin of this plain is the great mountain system of the Andes or Cordilleras, with a general direction north and south, as is that also of the two rivers named, with something of a westward trend, in their cases, which makes the plain rather broadest in its northern part, except a portion just south of the La Plata, in latitude 37° south, where the breadth is about 900 miles, or for a short distance some 200 miles greater than in the north. South of this widening the plain and continent rapidly contract, until at the eastern point of Tierra del Fuego they cease.

The topographical aspect is therefore somewhat like that of the region in the United States lying along and east of the Rocky Mountains, south of the forty-second parallel of latitude, which also decreases in altitude to the east and south, and consists mainly of grassy plains.

The Argentine plain is divided in its upper part by low mountains, in several parallel chains which follow the direction of the Cordilleras nearly, and may be considered as a prolongation of the great plateau of Bolivia, which in the form of a vast triangle extends eastward from the Andes, between 15° and 22° south latitude, and constitutes the watershed between the southwestern tributaries of the Amazon and the principal ones of the Rio de la Plata. The plain is further divided in the center by narrow, isolated chains of mountains which constitute the Sierra de Córdoba and its neighbors. The northern or smallest of these divisions is situated between the Bolivian plateau and the Córdoba chain, and is subdivided into distinct eastern and western regions. The western is distinguished by a long depression, running northeast and southwest, between the Cordilleras and the Córdoba chain. Here the plain finds its lowest depression in an ancient lake basin, now dry, 450 feet above sea level. This basin, with its salt beds, extending to the base of the mountains, and without vegetation, appears like an ancient steppe.

The southern and largest of these divisions of what may be properly called interior plain extends behind low outlying mountains down to Tierra del Fuego. So also is the depression, above characterized, extended southward to San Luis, directly west of Buenos Ayres, and united to the Patagonian steppes by a depression in the country around Lake Bevedero and its southern outlets. There is thus a considerable region lying between the Andes and the outlying plains mountains, and extending from the north well down through the south of the Republic, of present unmeasured extent, which is characterized by natural unfertility, like most of the "bad lands" of our own West.

East of the low interior mountains in the northern part of the Republic is another distinctly characterized region, of a far different aspect. It is watered or drained, as the case may be, within and on three sides, by the rivers Salado, Vermejo, Pilcomayo, and Paraná, and some of their tributaries, and includes the territories of the Chaco and Formosa, having an estimated area, as seen in the table of areas, of 125,612 square miles, or

5,000 more than New Mexico. This is characterized by Dr. Burmeister as "a vast wooded plain, with an uniform inclination from northwest to southeast, as is shown by the rivers which traverse it." Child, in his Spanish American Republics, after personal observation says more clearly:

The Argentine Chaco, even more than the Paraguayan Chaco, appears to be still in formation; the land is hardly a few inches above low-water level and is still struggling against the river, now losing ground and now gaining; the vegetation, rank and luxurant, is thick jungle and heavy grass, which nature is growing in the hope that in the course of hundreds of years the decayed matter will form a layer of soil on the sandy basis of plain and marsh.

And perhaps this description is overdrawn, being applied to the whole region, for it is certain that there are colonies established in the Chaco region and a railroad is being extended through it. As to the principal part of the region, however, its utilization in agriculture may be expected to be quite remote.

East and southeast of the Chaco is one of the best and most easily accessible portions of the republic and one differing from all the rest in many respects. Consisting of a long, narrow strip of land nearly surrounded by the Paraná, Uruguay, and tributaries of each, it is aptly called the Argentine Mesopotamia.* It includes the provinces of Entre Rios (between the rivers) and Corrientes (the currents), and the territory Misiones (the missions), which together have an area of 122,932 square miles, or a little less than the region last described and a little more than New Mexico. The appearance of this country is similar to that in Uruguay, adjoining, except that its central elevations are less and its alluvial lands more extensive. Its northern part is also more tropical. There are no plains here, but the surface is gently undulating and covered with a green turf. In the principal depres sions there are thickets and small streams, and fine forests upon the highlands and along the large water courses, especially along the Uruguay.

These general considerations include so far all the northern half of the country east of the Andes. The remainder of the eastern part is for the most part true pampa or plain land, down to and including a portion of Tierra del Fuego. The mountainous parts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego are abundantly supplied with timber, and in places with excellent grasses, and, like the northern portion of the country, are the sources of considerable streams.

To summarize, then, according to the nature of general physical characteristics governing in different parts, the Argentine Republic may be divided into four principal parts: (1) The Andine, consisting of the provinces of Injuy, Salto, Tucuman, Catamarca, Rioja, San Juan, and Mendoza, containing, of mountain, foothill, and both sterile and fertile pampa land, 232,200 square miles, or over 20.7 per cent. of the whole.

*So named by M. Martin de Moussy.

(2) The Pampas, consisting of the Chaco and Formosa, the provinces of Santiago del Estero, Santa Fé, Córdoba, San Luis, Buenos Ayres, and the territory of the Pampa, containing, of comparatively level land, 501,954 square miles, or 44.6 per cent of the whole. (3) The inter-river provinces, Misiones, Corrientes, and Entre Rios, of peculiar fertility and salubrity, and resembling, in topographical features, physical character, and productions, Uruguay and southern Paraguay rather than other portions of the country of which they are parts. This region contains 122,932 square miles, orover 10.9 per cent of the whole. (4) The southern portion, extending across to the Chilean line and from the Rio Negro to Cape Horn, comprising the territories of Rio Negro, Neuquen, Chubut, Santa Cruz, and Tierra del Fuego, with characteristics of soil, climate, and production, except upon the pampas, similar to those of the opposite northern region extending from the State of Washington up through Alaska. The exception, the pampa of Patagonia, is described by Dr. Burmeister as a vast plain without grass, with a hard soil covered by low bushes, among which leguminous and woody varieties predominate, with several species of cactus. The area of this fourth division is 268,000 square miles, or 23.8 per cent of the entire country.

The several divisions of the republic answer approximately in extent to the following political divisions of the United States, viz: The first to Colorado and New Mexico combined; the second to Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado; the third to New Mexico; and the fourth to Califor nia and Oregon.

AGRICULTURAL AREA.

The most considerable area in the Argentine Republic exempt from consideration as cultivatable is that distinguished by its mountainous character, and the intimately related one lying between the Cordilleras and the lesser ranges of the interior, characterized by Dr. Burmeister as unfertile. Of course there are areas amongst the mountains which may be cultivated for local supplies to some extent, but there is comparatively little that is available as farm rather than grazing land. The length of the mountain and steppe area is the length of the country, and its average width may be estimated approximately at 100 miles, at least. This gives a total area of these parts generally unfit for cultivation, although considerable of it undoubtedly is fit for grazing, at least during portions of the year, of 235,100 square miles.

The next large area generally unsuited to cultivation is included in the southern territories below the Rio Negro generally, which together have an extent of 268,000 square miles. A small part of this has been included in the foregoing estimate, as mountain land. Considerable of it consists of the region referred to by Dr. Burmeister as Patagonia, but which now bears more modern names upon Argentine maps, and

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