South America -- Description and travel; South America -- History
The Fuegian Archipelago, at the southern extremity of South America,
covers a territory as large as Nebraska. A tortuous, wind-swept
labyrinth of waterways separates the hundreds of islands that constitute
this group. The largest is Tierra del Fuego, half as large as Illinois.
It is divided longitudinally between Chile and Argentina, by far the
larger and more valuable portion having been awarded to the former by
the Royal Arbitrator. The name was given to the archipelago by Magellan,
when he saw the trails of smoke from the signal fires of the natives who
followed his epoch-making course through the strait that now bears his
name. Very little of the Fuegian country is under cultivation, although
thousands of sheep graze over its rich valleys and verdant plains. The
southernmost point, Cape Horn (in Chilean territory), is a monster rock,
bleak and forbidding, against which the antarctic storms beat with such
terrific force that, in the old days of sailing vessels, it was called
the headstone of the mariners’ most populous graveyard.
A vastly different scene awaits the traveler who penetrates into the
tropical wilds of the northern territories of Argentina. Going aboard
one of the fine steamers of Nicholas Mihanovitch—the kings of the
river traffic—at Buenos Aires, the traveler follows the course of the
Paraná, which is the main water highway of Argentina. The trip will
take him through the richest provinces of the Camp, past the busy
miniature Buenos Aires, the city of Rosario, which is the port of
shipment for the grain of this region, and up into the tropical
scenery and mystery of the Chaco and Misiones territories, opening up
vistas of prodigious natural growths and riotous beauty, differing in
every way from the somber majesty of the Fuegian country. The Chaco
and the territory of Formosa, adjoining it on the north, are still
almost wholly occupied by uncivilized Indians. Up to the present time
this region has been exploited chiefly for the wood of the _quebracho_
(_qui-bra-hacha_—axe-breaker) tree, which yields the best quality of
tannin and timber for railroad ties; it is richer in the former
product than any other tree yet discovered.
[Illustration: IGUAZÚ FALLS, WHERE BRAZIL, PARAGUAY, AND ARGENTINA
MEET.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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