LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires ([see page 35])[Frontispiece]
Map of Argentina[facing ix]
On the Upper Paraná River[4]
“Giant cranes are swinging”[25]
“They file around and around between the palms”[29]
“The broad and imposing Avenida de Mayo”[34]
The Avenida Alvear[35]
One of the Palatial Homes of Buenos Aires[38]
“Cows are brought to the door”[41]
The Ricoleta Cemetery[43]
“Agriculture has spread far and wide”[51]
Threshing Grain on an Estancia[52]
“Not a Handsome Structure, but ... rather striking”[54]
A Herd of Half-wild Horses[63]
“The harvesting machines are usually propelled from the rear”[65]
A Gaucho and His Wife on an Outing[67]
Gauchos Branding Cattle[71]
A Forest in the Gran Chaco[90]
An Indian Woman of the Gran Chaco[95]
Among the Hills of Cordoba[109]
“A somnolent atmosphere seems to prevail”[124]
The Legislative Palace, La Plata[126]
Puerto Galvan, Bahia Blanca[131]
A Sheep Dip[143]
Native Indians of Patagonia[148]
Useless Bay, Tierra del Fuego[151]
A Glimpse of the Andes from Mendoza[167]
Crossing the Andes[175]
“The Christ of the Andes”[176]
A Group of Peons[193]
One of Argentina’s Daughters[200]
Black-haired Children of Argentina[203]
The Hippodromo, Buenos Aires[210]
A Summer Cottage at El Tigre[216]
“Imposing creeper-clad cottages are dotted along the bank”[217]
Mar del Plata[222]
On the Beach, Mar del Plata[227]
A Secondary School[232]
The Columbus Theatre, Buenos Aires[245]
A Policeman of Argentina[248]
The Armoured Cruiser, “Pueyrredon”[257]
Bridge of the Incas[267]
Railway Station, Santa Fé[274]
Church in Corrientes, built in 1588[289]
San Martin and O’Higgins at La Cumbre, crossing the Andes into Chile[316]
Typical Wagons of the Pampas[341]
Rolls of Paper from Germany[364]
Congress Palace and the Plaza, Buenos Aires[381]
Shipping Hides to the United States[394]

ARGENTINA AND HER PEOPLE OF TO-DAY

CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY

With the single exception of Brazil, Argentina is the largest country in South America. It is about one-third the size of the United States. It is as large as the United States east of the Mississippi River, with a state the size of Texas added. The area is one million one hundred and thirty-eight thousand square miles. It is twelve times as extensive as the British Isles and five times the size of France. Argentina extends over thirty-three degrees of latitude, its northern limit being one degree within the Tropic of Capricorn. Buenos Aires, the capital, is about as far south of the equator as Atlanta is north, and is as far east of Washington as Newfoundland. It has a frontage on the Atlantic of sixteen hundred miles, almost as long as our own Atlantic shore. Its width varies greatly. The widest place is about nine hundred miles, and then it decreases again to the south until the mainland at its southernmost point is only one hundred and fifty miles across. The Argentine portion of Tierra del Fuego is a triangle about fifty-five miles on each side. The most of its limitations are natural boundaries, either of rivers or mountains. The national boundary between Chile and Argentina, which has been the cause of so much contention, is the backbone of the continent, and its longitude is still east of New York.

The topography of Argentina is very varied. Some, perhaps, think of it only as a flat and level country. This is true of the pampas, where for hundreds of miles there is scarcely a rise as high as a barn. Argentina probably contains the greatest stretch of level and fertile plains in the world, whose possibilities have hardly been touched upon. But Argentina is not all level. It contains within its borders the very highest mountain peak in the world outside of the Himalayas, mighty Aconcagua, which pierces the ether up to a height of twenty-four thousand feet. It also possesses Tupungato, another lofty peak of the Andean range. The pampas are entirely treeless except for groves which have been planted by man. But Argentina does not lack timber, for there are tracts larger than many European kingdoms which are covered with fine forests. The climate is equally diversified. One may broil in the wilderness of the Chaco, and shiver with the cold in Southern Patagonia. In fact there is almost as much difference in the climate as you would find between Sicily and Iceland. On the Andes slopes there is very little rain, but up in the territory of Misiones you reach the region of tropical downpours. Thus it is that you can find a representative type of almost any kind of climate and almost every variety of soil.