[33] The estimates given by Pissis do not rest on accurate observations, and seem to me exaggerated. I should be inclined to reckon the difference of height of the snow-line between the extreme stations as nearer to two thousand than to three thousand feet.
[34] I am not aware that the concurrent conclusions as to the height of this mountain have been verified by accurate observations, but the height commonly given appears to be a close approximation to the truth.
[35] “Flora Antarctica,” vol. ii. p. 289.
[36] See [Appendix B].
[37] It is unfortunate that the Spaniards who had the naming of so large a part of the American continent should have shown so little inventive faculty. When they did not adopt a native name for a river, they rarely got beyond Red River, Black River, or Big River, and wherever we turn we encounter a Rio Colorado, a Rio Negro, or a Rio Grande.
[38] The constant inconvenience of employing such cumbrous expressions as Argentine Confederation or Argentine territory for a state of such vast extent and such yearly increasing importance must be felt by every one who has occasion to speak or write about this region of America. I trust that I shall be forgiven if in this book, as well as elsewhere, I have taken the liberty of applying a single name, which has nothing about it so strange as that it should not long since have come into use.
[39] The Paranà, with its great tributary the Paraguay, drains an area of more than 1,100,000 square miles; the basin of the Uruguay is reckoned at 153,000 square miles.
[40] The term provinces, commonly applied to the federated States, is misleading, and should be laid aside.
[41] Much information respecting this country is to be found in a volume entitled, “The Argentine Republic,” published in 1876 for the Centenary Exhibition at Philadelphia. It contains a series of papers prepared by Mr. Richard Napp, assisted by several German men of science.
[42] Dr. Hann (“Klimatologie,” p. 657, et seq.) has discussed the causes of the prevalent high barometric pressure on both coasts of temperate South America, and has shown that in winter the area of maximum pressure moves northward towards the Tropic of Capricorn.