At first it was only the Argentinians of the western provinces, San Juan and Mendoza, who vied with the Chileans for the soil. It is they whom Furque found in 1888 at Roca, on the Rio Negro. But beginning with 1890-95, immigrants of various nationalities have settled on the Neuquen and the Negro.[68] Foreign capitalists organized their first ranches there. In 1888, on the other hand, the Welsh of the lower Chubut, led by Indian guides, went from the coast to the sub-Andean region, and settled in the valley of Diez y seis de Octubre. Between 1895 and 1900 the neighbouring valleys began to be inhabited, and the colonization areas of Nahuel Huapi and the Sanguerr came into contact.[69] [68] Furque, "Descripcion del Pueblo General Roca," _Bol. Instit. Geog. Argent._, ix. 1888, pp. 124-132. [69] In spite of their importance we must regard as mere episodes in the story of Patagonian colonization the influx of population caused on the eastern coast by the discovery of placer-gold at Cape Virgenes and on the Atlantic coast of Tierra del Fuego (1884), and the discovery of petroleum at Rivadavia (1907) in the course of drilling in search of water. Rivadavia is already, with its 3,000 inhabitants, one of the chief centres in Patagonia. * * * * * The most striking feature of colonization in Patagonia is the very low density of population. The Census of 1914 gives 81,000 inhabitants altogether for the territories of the Rio Negro, the Neuquen, the Chubut, the Santa Cruz, and Tierra del Fuego. A well-kept ranch of 25,000 square kilometres has only a staff of about a hundred men at the most, counting strangers, settled on its land; three hundred inhabitants, or scarcely more than one to ten square kilometres. This population falls into two distinct classes. One is the class of proprietors with regular titles: a rooted and stable class. At first the Government granted enormous concessions, which were taken up especially by English buyers, but it now seeks to break up the land, and the plots which it puts on the market for new pastoral colonies have not more than 625 hectares. This is too small for breeding, no matter how good the situation may be, and there will inevitably be, one would think, a concentration of estates in the hands of a few proprietors. The other part of the population occupy lands which they do not own. They are displaced steadily as the regular concessions are sold to new ranches. They live, so to say, on the margin of colonization, and are more and more restricted to the poorest lands. Sometimes these _intrusos_ or _pobladores_ get hospitality for their herds on the land of some ranch in return for their services. They have little capital, and never make material improvements. They take no care to nurse the pasture, and it matters little to them if it is impoverished.