water side, are of an indescribable beauty, only comparable to that of the lakes of Switzerland.

Unhappily good weather does not prevail; continuous gales of sleet, hail and snow follow one another in rapid succession, specially in the western part of the archipelago. At the Beagle Channel, there are, nevertheless, some weeks of good weather with fair and sunny days.

At the eastern and northern part of Tierra del Fuego properly speaking, there are prairies and very fertile valleys, and its interior reminds us, owing to its permanent greenness, of the center of England.

Three kind of Indian races with different languages and characteristics lived in Tierra del Fuego: the Alacalufs and Yahgans who used to live principally on fish and navigated in canoes made from a single tree, and the Onas who lived in the northern part of the mountains and resemble the Patagonian Indian.

Of the canoe Indians it can be said that they have almost totally disappeared; alcohol, small-pox and other diseases obtained from their contact with the white race have almost extinguished them; they were short and of very small extremities. The Onas who lived in the woods and prairies of the north and east were of a higher type, tall, strong and of better proportions than the Patagonians; they always traveled on foot and with extraordinary speed; they did not know horses; when the first horses were taken for the demarcation of the boundary line between Chile and Argentina in 1891, it was the first time they had seen one, and thought that the man on horse-back and the horse constituted only one animal with two heads.

All those Indians were very poor; they used to hunt with their arrows guanacos and birds that are found in great numbers. When a whale went aground on the shores it was a cause for great joy and festivity; they devoured crazily whale meat and rubbed their bodies with the grease.

Another great festivity for them was a shipwreck, from which they not only provided themselves with provisions but with utensils that were needful. With steam navigation through the Strait and the greater knowledge of the coast,

shipwrecks decreased; in regard to this I recall an old Indian who told me: "Life is becoming too hard, there are no more wrecks."

It has never been proved that these Indians were cannibals; in the cases of the murder of white persons that we know, what they did was to burn their bodies in a bonfire.

There are no more than 600 Indians in all; the whole land is covered by ranches in prosperous condition, some of them connected with great plantations of the Chilean region which overlooks the Strait, having ports with facilities for shipping their products.

The Argentine part inhabited by only 3000 people has 12,000 cows, 1,700,000 sheep, and 11,000 horses.

The navigation of the Strait has been affected by the Transandean railroad from Buenos Aires to Valparaíso and will be affected much more by the Panama Canal. The Chilean population of Punta Arenas will remain a center of activity for all that region so important for its live stock, gold and coal mines.

The capital of the Argentine territory of Tierra del Fuego is at Ushuaia on the Beagle Channel, Here there is an important reformatory prison; the working of lumber, gold mines and other products keeps it in a state of prosperity. There are also branches of the national bank and of important commerce concerns. There is frequent communication with Punta Arenas and steamship lines connect it with Buenos Aires.

Staten Island is an ensemble of abrupt peaks of the most irregular and imposing forms. It is not populated; in a small island north of the former called Año Nuevo, where there is a lighthouse, the government keeps a magnetic observatory directed by officers of our navy, as well as a powerful wireless station.

Many of the sailing-ships that turn Cape Horn pass through the Strait of Lemaire when they have good wind with which they save many miles.

Calms combined with strong currents in the neighborhood of these coasts as well as dense fogs and errors in the ship's position, after long days at sea, are the cause of frequent

wrecks on the shores of both the island and the continental land.

The national telegraph goes through the coast to Cape Virgenes and towards the interior to the Colony 16 de Octubre. Besides this there are wireless stations in Punta Delgada, Virgenes, Año Nuevo and Ushuaia.

The ports of the Patagonian coasts are frequently visited by good steamers of a subsidery line of the Hamburg-American Line, that maintains a service every fifteen days; there are two other lines of Argentine ships besides cargo-boats and sail boats specially freighted by the exporting companies.

With this showing of civilization and progress, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego are no longer ignored and mysterious lands. The navigator nears the coast and sees light-houses and beacons. Houses in the lively towns show their whiteness and the smoke of the railroad engines and factories can also be perceived.

Patagonia of the legends, used to localize fantastic narrations or to give funny titles for nobles of operettas, is now a country in full progress; to give it a peculiar tone, it will only remain the pengüin at the coast and the guanaco at the interior; and Argentines of the future generation will be able to increase with four or five the number of their provinces or states in a similar way as the United States has increased the number of stars on its beautiful flag.

THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF THE ARGENTINE

NATION

By Bailey Willis, Ph.D., Consulting Geologist to the Minister of Public Works, Argentina, 1911-1913: Member of the United States Geological Survey

The point of view which is accepted in this paper is that of a study in evolution, involving the well established principle that any organism on migrating into a new region becomes modified by adjustment to its environment, and develops activities suited to the conditions of life by which it is surrounded. As applied to all the lower ranks of animals, the bearing of this principle of adaptation is not questioned, nor does its validity need to be argued in applying it to races of men, or even to nations. Let me illustrate the point by referring to the migrations of Asiatic tribes into Europe, where several thousand years ago new nations were born and civilization began that evolution from which we are developing. It was in the new environment that the human race made progress. Once more, and for the last time, when Columbus led the Europeans to the American continent a similar great opportunity offered itself to humanity. Under the tremendous stimulus of modern forces we already see progress toward the evolution of a higher type of man, the Pan-American.

In all parts of the Americas the American type is becoming distinct in physical and mental characteristics from the European stocks from which it originated. Everywhere evolutions are going on, in each region according to the racial factors of the colonizing peoples and the physical factors of the environment into which they have migrated. From the snowy north lands of Canada, through the fertile savannahs of the United States, in the tropics of the Isthmus and the Amazon, on southward across the vast

river flats of the Paraguay, over the breezy Pampas to the misty channels of Magellan, under all the varied conditions of plain and mountain, of sunny grass lands and shady forests, the European races have spread and are evolving new types of men, developing new nations. Their evo

lution reflects the influence of local environment. Reciprocally, their environment is being changed by them, as they cultivate the soil, introduce great herds of domestic animals, establish lines of communication, and exploit the natural resources for their own use and benefit.

In the temperate zone of South America is a people sprung from the same stocks as the North Americans, occupying a land in many respects similar to that of the United States. A hundred years ago that people freed itself from Europe. During the succeeding decades it fought its way to national unity. In the last thirty years it has made great progress toward developing the resources of the land for the service of mankind. It has gained independence, has defined its domain, has developed individuality. Having secured high rank among the progressive powers of the world, the Argentine nation stands on the threshold of a great future. Conscious of its strength it looks confidently forward. Scarcely conscious of any limitations it pays little heed to those conditions of environment which will inevitably determine its character and prosperity, yet it can not escape them. As Channing said of individuals, so of nations: "Life is inexorably conditioned and conditions us." And that nation will go forward most securely on the path of progress which early takes account of the resources and limitations that constitute the physical basis of its civilization.

In the Old World the exploitation of the natural resources went on for centuries wastefully until scarcity resulted, and compelled care-taking, renewal, and conservation. In the New World waste also has been excessive and still goes on, but recently we have been roused to the possibility of national poverty in forests, waters, and soils, and having taken an inventory, we in the United States are striving to establish the principle of conservation of the natural