Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/164

 154 PATAGONIA Andes. The maximum length from N. to S. is 1,050 m. ; the maximum width from E. to W. near the northern extremity is 475 m., and near the southern extremity 175 m. ; area about 350,000 sq. m. The coast line is in- dented by numerous inlets, particularly S. and W., where the seaboard is the most irregular of any on the South American continent. The largest gulfs on the Atlantic are San Ma- tias, Nuevo, and St. George; and the ^ chief ports are those of San Antonio, San Jose, De- sire, San Julian, and Santa Cruz. On the Pa- cific are the gulfs of Trinidad, Penas, Corco- vado, and Ancud, the two latter being more properly straits separating the island of Chiloe from the mainland. None of the ports are described as being commodious for shipping. Islands are extremely rare on the E. coast; but the Pacific coast is fringed by a continuous chain, mostly in distinct groups. Wellington, by far the largest island, between lat. 47 30' and 50 5', has a maximum length of 165 m. from N. N. W. to S. S. E., and a mean breadth of nearly 40 m. To the north of this island is the gulf of Penas, to the south that of Trini- dad, and it is separated from the mainland by Mersier channel. Others of the larger islands are Queen Adelaide, Hanover, and those of the Chonos or Guaytecas archipelago. The eastern shores of most of the islands are high and rocky, and the western slopes covered with a comparatively rich arboreal vegetation, while the western edges are bare and subject to frequent storms. The only important penin- sula on the Atlantic is that of Valdes, some- times called San Jose ; in the straits of Magel- lan is that of Brunswick, and on the Pacific that of Taytao. On the E. coast, the more prominent points and capes are Medano at the embouchure of the Negro, Norte and Delgada on Valdes peninsula, Tres Puntas and Virgins at the entrance to the straits of Magellan, and Cape Froward in Brunswick peninsula, the southernmost point of the American mainland. The capes on the W. coast, though numer- ous, are unimportant. Patagonia, in common with the remainder of the western continent lying "W. of Ion. 62, is traversed from S. to N. by the Andes, which here lie nearer to the coast than almost anywhere else S. of the isthmus of Panama. From the southern ex- tremity of the territory to Mt. Burney, which has an elevation of 4,800 ft., there are few summits above 3,000 ft. ; but the snow line in this region of short summers and long win- ters being under 2,000 ft., the character of the mountains is Alpine, and glaciers are fre- quent, at times even down to the sea level in the valleys. Northward from Mt. Burney the Alpine character is more continuous, especially in that part of the cordillera sometimes called the Sierra de Sarmiento. According to Agas- siz, the glaciers, which here evidently had a greater extension at an earlier period, have left indications of a movement from S. to N., and were connected with a polar ice sheet similar to that the traces of which are so apparent in the northern hemisphere. An observer from high summits is struck by the number of small lakes at all elevations, and still more by the slen- der cascades formed by the water rolling over the transverse ridge by which almost every valley is barred at different heights. The lofti- est peaks are between lat. 43 and 45 S., where the most conspicuous eminences are Mt. Cay and the volcanoes Yanteles (8,000 ft.) and Corco- vado. The latter volcano was formerly, though erroneously, considered the loftiest mountain in the world below lat. 42 S. Like its neigh- bor Minchinmadiva, however, about one degree further N., it more properly belongs to Chili than to Patagonia, though commonly assigned to the latter. A system of spurs detached from the Andes in lat. 41 S. curves north- ward to the very banks of the Rio Negro, and again bends S. E., trending toward the Atlantic coast, where it forms a littoral zone extending into the peninsula of Vald6s. Terraced rocky ranges skirt the Atlantic coast from the pen- insula just named to the southern extrem- ity of the continent, rising here and there to a considerable elevation, as in the peaks Sala- manca (lat. 45 30'), Rivers (47 30'), and Wood (48 20'), and the singularly shaped hills in- land from Possession bay, known as Mt. Ay- mond and the Asses' Ears, supposed to be the easternmost of a chain of small extinct volca- noes. The mountains of the middle region of the straits, comprised in Brunswick peninsula, range from 1,000 to 3,000 ft. above the sea, but without glaciers, snow remaining only in patches on their summits. A low transverse chain, parallel to the bed of the Santa Cruz river in lat. 50 S., unites in Mt. Stokes, nearly 100 m. from the Pacific coast, with the true Andine cordillera. The space comprised within the mountains first traced embraces the sterile plains of Patagonia, consisting of a bed of shingle worn smooth and accumulated by the waves of the sea. The principal rivers are those emptying into the Atlantic. The Negro, forming the boundary with the Argen- tine Republic, disembogues at El Carmen de Patagones, after a generally eastward course of over 500 m., throughout nearly the whole of which it has been navigated. The Chupat, descending from the Andes, traverses the plains eastward and discharges into the ocean at the port of the same name. The St. George, from the same chain, crossing the territory in a like direction, empties into St. George's bay in lat. 46 30'. The Santa Cruz, after the Ne- gro by far the most important, as it is navi- gable throughout at all seasons, the depth be- ing nowhere less than 9 ft., forms the east- ern outlet of Lake Viedma (lat. 49 30' S.), whence by a gentle curve S. E. it flows to its estuary, into which it discharges through a mouth 3 m. wide. The tide here rises from 35 to 50 ft. twice in the 24 hours. The few streams to the Pacific have short precipitous courses. Of the lakes existing in the interior,