The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-04-28
DESERT" that
IS BLOSS0M|NC
irrigation Has Rescued Millions
of Acres of Once Waste Land
in Patagonia.
HOME OF THE "pLESIOSAURUS"
Little Known Country Brought to Pub
lie Attention by Report That Land
May Harbor Prehistoric
Monsters.

Kamchatka and Timbuktu as repre-
senting the ends of the earth. Now
1t has it's supposed strangeness furth.
er emphasized by the reported discov.
cry there OF a pleSiOSaurus, q huge
lizard-like creature thought to have
been extinct for many thousands OF
years. Something of this land which
may harbor prehistoric monsters is
told In a bulletin issued from the
Washington headquarters Of the Ma
tional Geographic society.
IF the ideas Of Patagonia general
~ held are a bit hazy," says the bull
letin, there is good reason for 1t, for
the region did not really begin to be
well known until a generation ago,
and even now there are Sizeable areas
that have not beer explored. The first
fact that reeds to be understood about
Patagonia is that it is not an official
division. Like the Northwest terri
tory of the early days of the United
States, it has been carved up into
states or provinces. But even if the
name, Patagonia, has been pushed off
many official papers, it has chung in
popular usage and probably will re-
main for a long time.
Twice Area of California.
1.-THE extreme southern tip of Ar
g~entina would probably be given as
the off-hand location of Patagonia in a
large number of cases. But the region
given his designation really covers
one-half the north-and-south extension
of the republic, stretching from cen
trail Argentina for more han 1000
miles south almost to the tip of the
continent. It's width varies from about
100 miles in the south to 400 in the
.orth, and its area is nearly twice
kat of California.
IAN idea of the physical condition
nd economic development of this vast
lrea can be conveyed best perhaps by
he statement that Patagonia is to
Argentina what the great West and
the Southwest were to the United
States just after the Civil war. There
was the myth of the great American
desert then-a dry, cheerlesS country
that could never be reclaimed. But
with the extension of railroads, farms,
ranches and irrigation systems this
North American desert Is disap-
pearing.
Just so Patagonia was labeled a
desert for many years; but farms and
irrigation works ave already rescued
great enclaves from the region and
millions of head of cattle and a score
Of million sheep are supported today
on only portions of the area. After a
few thousand more miles of railway
shall nave been constructed, a few
hundred steam shovels shall have been
set to work, and a few million yards
Of wire fencing shall have been
stretched in place, the Patag0nian
desert will probably go the way Of
It's North American precursor.
Darwin Gave Region Black Eye.
'It is an interesting fact that the
statement of a careful scientist
Charles Darwin-did much to give
Patagonia an undeservediy bad repu-
tation before the world. Darwin
studied chiefly the forbidding desert
coast Of the lower portion of the coun-
try, and his discouraging report was
interpreted as applying to the entire
country. For decades no one thought
hinterland.
ut is westward beyond the semi
arid pampas or plains that the most
interesting and least thoroughly
known portions of Patagonia are
found. Along the eastern slopes of
the Andes and in some of the valleys
between it's parallel ranges Is a scenic
and climatic paradise. Grassy meadows
and forest-clad slopes alternate with
cliffs and towering, snowman
tied peaks, and scattered everywhere
are innumeraDle sparkling streams and
lakes. This is, in fact, one
of the most extensive and most won
derful lake regions in the world. A
number of these bodies of water are
comparable in size to Lake Cham
plain. Only a relatively few of the
lakes nave been named and
some have bee numbered. Many of
them, however, have not beer ex-
olored. 1t is in this inter-mountain
AXE region that scientific expeditions
will search for the strange creatures
-eported to have been seer there.
zone of the best known of the
Lakes Of Argentina is Manuel
Iuapi. This lake is in the edge of
Patagonia, but is still nearly LOCO
niles north of Cape Horn. The area
# his many-branched body of water
s probably in the neighbOrhood of
square miles. It's latitude in the
outhern hemisphere almost exactly
esponds to that In the northern
of the Rock Mountain Ma
park, just north of Denver; and
t is about 300 miles from Buenos
Tres, the same distance as thai
vhich separates Denver from Chicago.
Iuch territory will be made into one
I Argentina's principal national play
1t is planned to harness I
ne outlet river and to build at the {
astern margin of the lake, in q r. |
Ion of delightful climate. a great In {