Most of the land is leased from the government for a long term of years. Many of the proprietors have enclosed their holdings with wire fences, thereby lessening the expense of caring for their flocks. Some of the holdings range from twenty-five thousand to more than two million acres.
Southern Patagonia has immense numbers of guanacos, or wild llamas. These animals frequent the Andean slopes and the adjacent pampas. During the winter season they come down to the lowlands to drink in the unfrozen lakes and feed upon the herbage. During severe winters sometimes hundreds are found dead from starvation in the valleys near the frozen lakes.
Thousands of wild cattle are found on the eastern slopes of the Andes, but they are difficult to capture; they are exceedingly wary and can scent a man far off. In agility in climbing the steep, rough places they equal the goat. If one of their number is killed the whole herd deserts the locality at night. When wounded they are fierce fighters, if forced into close quarters.
Punta Arenas, or "Sandy Point," is on the north side of the Strait of Magellan and is Chilean territory. It is a new town cut out of the woods, and even yet many of the streets are diversified by the stumps of big beech trees. The place is an important coaling and provision station and, next to Honolulu, the most important ocean post-office in the world. It has a population of twelve thousand, and is the capital and centre of the great wool industry of the Territory of Magellan, which comprises a majority of the islands south of the mainland, together with the southern part of Patagonia.
A few years ago, in order to encourage the building up of Punta Arenas, the government offered a lot free to any one who would erect a building on it. Many accepted the offer, and to-day some of the lots in the business part of the town are very valuable. Although most of the buildings are constructed with regard to economy rather than beauty, yet some of the business blocks will compare favorably with those of the new cities in the United States.
Like several Australian cities, Punta Arenas was a convict colony. It was founded as such in 1843, and so remained until the European steamships began to thread the strait instead of doubling the Horn. Then it became a coaling station, a supply store, a half-way town, and an ocean post-office. All this business was previously carried on at the Falkland Islands, but the route through the strait settled the business for both places. The Falkland station was abandoned; Punta Arenas became a thriving town. A ticket-of-leave was given to each convict who consented to join the Chilean army.
The town forthwith blossomed into a typical frontier settlement—banks and gambling dens, churches and saloons, schools and bullfights. Every race of people and almost every industry is represented there. The Spanish see to it that the Sunday bullfights are correct; the French insure the proper social functions; the Germans manage the banks; and the Americans take the profits of the railways, telegraph lines, and flour-mills. As to latitude, Punta Arenas is cold and inhospitable; but for business and social affairs, it is very, very warm, especially in the matter of social affairs.