The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-03-13
PUNTA ARENAS,
rho Most Southern Town of the American
Continent


Continent
We reached Punt2, Arenas in the
night, anchored, and slept happily until
iaybreak, when we blew the steam
whistle to warn the inhabitants of our
presence. At length the captain of the
port came on board. and we were at
liberty to go ashore; but the landing
was difficult and dangerous; owing to the
! roughness of the water and the print
tiveness of the moles, we had to be
hoisted out of the ships boat with ropes.
The town does not offer much to in
terest the visitor. In the bay are two
coal hullIs, an American schooner at
anchor, several small coasting schooners,
used for seal-fshing and local service,
and Gillian survey steamer. To the
north of the town is a government
depot, with half Il dozen buoys lying on
the sandy shore, and looking from a
distance like gigantic spinning tops.
Still further to the north is an old
lighthouse tower, painted red and
white, which was used by the German
lulSoIOn tLI Vic IllhC VI bllC
last passage of Venus. Beyond the
| lighthouse the land becomes fiat, and
stretches out into the water, forming
long sandy spit, with conical beacon
on the extreme point Hence the name
of the settlement Sandy Point.
The town is of very recent ORR
gin, but it has grown rapidly,
and now has population of 922 souls,
| the whole Tcrritorio de Magellanes
having population OF 2,0s6, of whom
about 500 are foreigners of various
nationalities. the chief capitalists and
business people being German or En-
glish. The houses are solidly built of
wood, the best of them having CORFU
gated iron roofs. Most of the buildings
are painted white; some have walls and
roofs Of the same deep red color; the
roofs are, of couse, sharply pointed to
throw off the rain. The general aspect
of things there is new and prosperous.
The principal business houses are Ger
man. Punta Arenas is free port, and
the great center for supplying the sheep
farms and various settlements on the
opposite islands of the Terra del Fuego
group, southern Patagonia, and the
Falkland Islands In these rainy and
apparently inhospitable regions the
great industry is sheep-farming There
is also much gold-dust in the rivers and
torrents, and silver and coal mines i'll
the neighborhood, but hitherto they
have not been worked with success.
1t is curious to note that the
shepherds who come t. Punta Are
mas to buy goods and provisions often
pay in gold-dust, which they gather
in the streams near which their tiocks
are feeding. Skins and furs form a
second important industry; seal and
sea-otters abound in the various chan
nels between the islands of Terra del
Fuego and of the Straits of Magellan,
and three times year the Patagonian
Indians ride into Punta Arenas to sell
the produce of their hunting excursions,
namely, puma, ostrich, guanaco and
silver-foX skins. The expectation OF
furs is an important business here. and
the port, standing as it does in the regu-
lar steamer track, is destined to greater
and greater prosperity. When we re.
turned on board we found two Danish
fur dealers displaying their stock Of
merchandise and endeavoring to dc
business with the passengers. The
skins were spread out over the hatche:
on the aft deck-ostrich, guanaco, seal
otter, puma, fox-looking soft anc
warm, and interspersed with a few In
dian curiosities, such as bows, arrows
spears, lassos, shellwork, spurs, model:
of bark canoes, and the terrible bolas
which the Patagonians and their pupils
the Argentine gauchos, use to hunt the
ostrich. The Osiris landed our mailbag
and dozen sacks of potatoes, and tool
on board a quantity of ostrich feather:
to be delivered in Havre, and then pro
seeded on her way.-Theodore Child, ir
Harpers' Magazine