CHUBUT, a territory of the southern Argentine Republic, part of what was formerly called Patagonia, bounded north by Rio Negro, south by Santa Cruz, east by the Atlantic and west by Chile. Pop. area, 93,427 sq.m. Except for the valleys in the Andean foot-hills, which are fertile and well forested, and the land along the banks of the Chubut river, which flows entirely across the territory from the Andes to the Atlantic, the country is a steppe land covered with scanty dwarfed vegetation, with occasional shallow saline lakes. The larger rivers are the Chubut and the Senguerr, the latter flowing into Lake Colhuapi. There are a number of large lakes among the Andean foot-hills, the best known of which are Fontana, La Plata and General Paz, and, in the interior, Colhuapi or Colhue and Musters, the latter named after the English naval officer who traversed Patagonia in 187o. Petroleum was found at Comodoro Rivadavia, in the south ern part of the territory, toward the close of 1907, at a depth of 1,768 ft. and is being exploited. Chubut is known chiefly by the Welsh colony near the mouth of the Chubut river and its branch, the of October colony, farther up the river. The chief town of the Welsh, Rawson, is the capital of the territory, and Port Madryn on Bahia Nueva is its best port. Other colonies have been founded in the fertile valleys of the Andean f oot-hills, but their growth is greatly impeded by lack of transportation facilities. (See PATAGONIA.)