This Territory is bounded on the North by the Province of Mendoza, on
the West by Chile, on the South by the Territory of the Rio Negro, and on
the East by the Territory of the Pampa Central.
Neuquen, though Argentina at large knows little of it, grows more
wheat than any other National Territory, except the Pampa Central, and
more alfalfa than any except the last named and the Territory of the
Rio Negro. It also sends small quantities of potatoes and other table
vegetables to Chile. Its chief exports to that country consist of cattle
and sheep on the hoof.
The whole of the Andine side of Neuquen is extremely picturesque, and
abounds in fertile valleys well watered by mountain streams. These
streams, after their arrival at the foot of the Andine range, form a
network of ultimate tributaries of the great rivers Colorado and Negro;
after having formed a whole system of lakes of which Nahuel Huapí is the
largest. The scenery of this lake, with the great snow-covered volcanic
mountain TRONADOR (the Thunderer) on its Southern end, is Scandinavian
in its tree-clad magnificence. The superficial area of this lake is some
1000 square miles and its depth in some parts is over 700 feet.
On one of its islands, Victoria, the enormously wealthy Argentine family
of Anchorena have founded a colony to work its wealth of virgin timber,
on a 99 years’ lease from the National Government.
A number of small steam and sailing boats ply on this lake, gathering the
wood, hides and other produce of the farms on its borders and bringing to
the farmers their necessary supplies.
Neuquen is credited with alluvial goldfields and has some copper. Its
mineral wealth is as yet, however, really unascertained; the prospecting
and tentative exploitation of it having been up to the present only done
by syndicates or small companies whose resources have been too limited
for the tasks they have set themselves in, from the point of view of
transport, such inaccessible regions.
The Western and South-Western parts of this Territory are rich in timber,
and its Eastern plains should, with irrigation, repeat the prosperous
history of the Pampa Central.
It has many hot and other mineral springs, the medicinal and other
virtues of which are already known in Chile; from which country they
attract many sufferers from rheumatism and stomachic and other ailments.
In dealing with all the yet little known outlying parts of the vast
Argentine Republic one is apt to become wearisomely tautological in
one’s endeavours to give some true idea of their enormous latent natural
wealth. Yet if one set out, ever so modestly, to bring some conception of
them home to the Northern Hemisphere, one must tell the truth even at the
risk of reiteration. And the truth is that for the future wealth of all
these regions there is only one word, INCALCULABLE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account