The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-12-13

narrow strip west of the Cordillera, includ-
ing the mountains themselves and all the
Islands, is now claimed by Chill; and
though good for nothing agriculturally,
is believed to be rich in coal and copper,
and possibly in gold and silver not to men
ton an inexhaustiole amount of timber.
The distance is so short between the Andes
and the Pacific, that its longest river, ris-
ing near the summit, measures barely thir-
teen miles in its windings to the coast.
There are
SEVERAL ACTIVE VOLCANOES
among its mountains, the largest of which
-Minchimadia, opposite the island of
Chloe, is eight thousand feet high. The
mean temperature of this region 80 degrees
Fair. both winter and summer, for the
weather seldom varies from a damp, pene-
trating chilliness, which is more trying to
man and beast than a greater degree of
cold in dryer atmosphere. The reason for
this lies in the fact that western winds
prevail; and those heavily surcharged with
moisture drawn from the limitless wastes
OF the Pacific, strike against the cold, high
mountain wall and fall in almost perpetual
rain, sleet or snow. In spite of the cold,
this eternal dampuess has produced for
ests of tropical lux uriance, in whose depths
jaguars Turk, and fierce pumas, (mountain
llonS), and the shy guanace-one of the five
species of 'camel-sheep" peculiar to South
America, while along the coast seals and
sea-elephants abound
argentine Patagonia, " which comprises
about four-fifths of the whole country
reckoned by square miles, stretches from
the Andes eastward to the Atlantic, and is
commonly spoken of as 1.-The Pampas,"
(plains), though most of it bears no re-
semblance to the name. The true pampas
begin away up north near the Rio de la
Plata, and end not far below the Rio Ne
gro. South of this the whole country is
succession of stony steppes and grass
grown meadows, varied by salt lakes and
brackish marshes. The pebbly surface is
mixed with earth of a pale-gray color, over
lying masses Of porphyry and strewn with
enormous boulders, gradually rising in nat
ural terraces from the ocean to the Cordil-
lera. the highest terrace reaching an alti-
tude of 1900 feet. Tho soil is strongly i'm
pregnated with salt-petre, and the numer-
Gus small salt lakes are surrounded by a
dazzling
sNow-wHITE CREST.
In several of these lakes the water is pois-
opous, and all have the popularity of being
extremely cold in summer time and CORES
pondingly warm in the winter. Other
places are overgrown with tall grass, SO
rank and coarse as to resemble rushes; al
morasses salter than the sea itself, and
Salinas" or beds of solid salt, often two
or three feet thick and covering an area of
several square miles; while toward the
west, the dead level of the landscape
is broken by basaltic ridges, the
home of hawks and eagles. The great An
dean condor here crosses the continent for
the first and only time and does not dis
dain to build his clumsy nest upon bare
rocks overhanging inland streams, as well
as cliffs that front the sea. He is accom-
panied into exile by the big, black turkey
buzzard, and also by two species of poly
borus, or eagle-vultures, known in local
parlance as ''carranches'' and 'chinian-
goes"
Biologists tell US that all this country
was once sea-bottom, for every where ma
rine shells are found, and other evidences
that the ocean once rolled over it, Far in
land the remains OF fossil monsters are met
the giant armadillo, (0lyptodon), and CO.
lossal mylodoIs and me0dtheri,tms: and sew
eral hundred miles of the southern coast is
one vast deposit of tertiary strata. under