The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn: A Study of Life in Tierra del Fuego and PatagoniaSpears, John Randolph
History
The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn: A Study of Life in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia
Spears, John Randolph
Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) -- Description and travel
The homes and the home life of the sheep owners and sheep herders are
well worth describing in connection with what has been said of the great
profits the careful and industrious owners may make. I visited one of
the best ranches in the territory of Santa Cruz. It was located three
miles below Santa Cruz city, and was the property of two brothers of
English blood, born in the Falkland Islands. The Falklands being full of
sheep and no more land to be had there, these brothers took their
inheritance and went over to Patagonia. They selected their range when
choice could be made anywhere, and so got two valleys running into that
of the Santa Cruz. No matter how dry the season, therefore, they were
sure of grass for their flocks, and no matter how severe the blizzards
of winter, the sheep would find plenty of shelter under the hills and
steep banks and in the lee of the clumps of brush that grow on low
ground. The brush, too, was in sufficient quantity and of a size to
serve as fuel and for building corrals. It was as good a location as one
could ask for.
On the tongue of moderately high ground, where the two valleys united to
enter that of the Santa Cruz, they built their house. It was a mansion
for that country. The walls were of vertical boards battened with thin
strips, and the roof was of corrugated iron. This structure was divided
by wooden partitions into four comfortable rooms, of which two contained
two beds each, one was a general living room and kitchen combined, and
the fourth was a store-room. All but the last had good wooden floors.
There was a good wrought-iron cook-stove in the main room, and a table
and chairs that had come from a furniture factory. The beds, too, were
of factory make, and there were sheets as well as blankets on them.
There were a few photographs on the walls--portraits of relatives and
friends--and everywhere a profusion of grocery and tobacco-store
lithographs. All these things could be seen when the doors were closed,
because there were windows with glass in them, and the glass was kept
clean. There was a broom in the corner, and the floor showed that it was
used regularly. In short, here was a house that was neat and
comfortable.
I ate dinner with the brothers. We had mutton roasted over an out-door
fire--the best kind of roast--with fresh-baked bread, Yankee hard tack,
and coffee with granulated sugar and Yankee condensed milk in it.
Knowing something of ranch life as it is ordinarily found in Patagonia,
I said to one of the brothers:
"I do not believe there is a sheep man in Patagonia that lives more
comfortably than you."
"I fancy not," he said. "We have about everything that we want, and do
not mean to starve for the sake of saving sixpence extra."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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