The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1922-04-06
PATAGON|AN LAND
IS RICH COUNTRY

Patagonia has long been ticket
ed in many minds with Kamchatka
and Timbuktu as representing the
end of the earth. Now it has
its supposed strangeness further en-
phasized by the reported discovery
there of a plesiosaurus, a huge
lizard-like creature thought to have
been extinct for many thousands
of years. Something of this land
which may harbor prehistoric mon-
sters is told in a bulletin issued
from the Washington, D. c., head
quarters of the National Geographic
Society.
"If the ideas of Patagonia gen.
orally held are a bit hazy," says
the bulletin, there is good reason
for it, for the region did not
really begin to be well known until
a generation ago, and even now
there are stable areas that have
not been explored. The first fact
that needs to be understood about
Patagonia is that it is not an offic-
ial division. Like the northwest ter
ritory' of the earlier 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 pa
pers, it has chung in popular usage
and probably will remain for a
long time.
"The extreme southern tip of
Argentina would probably be given
as the off-hand location of Pata-
gonia in large number of cases.
But the region given this designa-
ton really covers one-half the north
and south extension of the republic
stretching from Central Argentina
for more than 1000 miles south
almost to the tip of the continent.
It's width varies from about $50
miles in the south to $50 in the
north, and its area is nearly twice
that of California our second larg-
est state.
"An idea of the physical con-
dition and economic development of
this vast area can be conveyed best
perhaps by the statement that Pata-
gonia is to Argentina what the West
and the Southwest were to the
United States after the Civil War.
There was the myth of the great
American desert then-a dry, cheer
less country that could never be
reclaimed. But with the extension
of railroads, farms, ranches and ir-
rigation systems this North Ameri-
can desert is disappearing.
"Just so Patagonia was labeled
desert for many years; but farms
and irrigation works have already
rescued great enclaves from the re-
gion and millions of head of cattle
and a score of a million of sheep
are supported today on only por-
lions of the area. After a few
thousand more miles of railway
shall have been constructed, a. few
hundred steam shovels have been
set to work, and few million
yards of wire fencing shall have
been stretched in place, the Pata-
gonian desert will probably go the
way of its North American pre-
cursor.
at is an interesting fact that
the statements of a careful scientist
Darwin-did much to
give Patagonia an undeservedly
bad reputation before the world.
Darwin studied chiefly the forbid
ding desert coast of the lower por-
tion of the country, and his dis
couraging report was interpreted
as applying to the entire country.
For decades no one thought it
worth while even to explore the
at is westward beyond the semi
arid pampas or plains that the most
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 sheer cliffs
and towering, snow-mantled peaks;
and scattered everywhere are in
Vulnerable sparkling streams and
sky-blue peaks. This in fact is one
of the most extensive and wonder
full lake regions in the world.
A number of these bodies are COM
parable in size to Lake Champlain.
Only a relatively few Of the small
er lakes have been named and some
have been numbered. Many of
them, however, have not been ex-
plored. 1t is in this inter-mountain
lake region that scientific ex-
petitions will search for the
strange creatures reported to have
been seen there.
Zone of the best known of the
Andean lakes Of Argentina is Ma
huel Haupi. This lake is in the
edge of Patagonia but is still nearly
1000 miles north of Cape Horn.
The area of this many-branched