Water for the flocks is a matter of much concern. Its complete absence accounts for those few areas which are still unoccupied, The manantiales, pools of water concentrated in depressions from rain and snow, are important but most of them do not long survive the rainy season. There are permanent pools in many of the larger depressions but they are mostly saline. Along the dry lower courses of intermittent streams, underground streams are frequently found. Lines of wells follow these underground streams as along the course of the Picun Leufu above the confluence of its bed (now dry for several miles from its mouth) with the Limay river. On both sides of the lower Negro deep wells have been sunk over the Tertiary platform and windmills for pumping water are a feature of every ranch. The red sandstone areas are completely without available water but water issues from the base of the volcanic rock in those sections where the underlying rock is impermeable.
Wool was until quite recently the only export from the sheep ranches but refrigerating plants have now been built at Puerto Deseado, San Julian, Puerto Gallegos and at Rio Grande on Tierra del Fuego. Their combined output in 1927 was
animals. Of this number 608,911 were exported. On the Chilean side of the boundary there are refrigerating plants on the Strait of Magellan, at Rio Seco and at Puerto Sara, 8 m. and 8o m. respectively, north from Magallanes (Punta Arenas). The driving of the sheep to the refrigerating centres is a difficult task for the distances are great and the problem of feed and water is serious.
The Southern railway of Buenos Aires has con structed a 5 ft. 6 in. gauge line for about 86o m. from Bahia, Blanca which crosses the Colorado river to the famous Choele Choele agricultural region of the lower Negro river and then runs up the Negro, serving the numerous agricultural colonies in the irrigated oasis of the river valley; passes through Neuquen, the capital of the Territory of Neuquen at the confluence of the Neuquen and Limay rivers; and extends west for about 150 m. to the Zapala ranch in south-central Neuquen. The Zapala ranch has become the rail centre for the whole of the sub-Andean cattle raising zone of Neuquen. From San Antonio the Argentine Gov ernment has built about 28o m. of a railway which now serves important ranches in the Valcheta and Maquinchao depression and will eventually reach Bariloche on Lake Nahuel Huapi. Viedma, the capital of the Territory of Rio Negro near the mouth of the Negro river has no rail connection, but a line swung south from Bahia Blanca is about two-thirds completed. Rawson, the capital of the Territory of Chubut, near the mouth of the Chubut river, has also no direct rail connection but a short line of meter gauge runs from Puerto Madryn to Trelew (a few miles west of Raw son) and continues for about 35 m. through the Welsh settlements
of the lower Chubut. Its terminus is connected by cart roads with the Welsh colony in the 16 de Octubre valley and important holdings of various land companies in the same region. In southern Chubut a short railway of 5 ft. 6 in. gauge connects the Sarmiento colony near Lake Musters with Comodoro Rivadavia. It is pro posed to extend this line to Lake Buenos Aires. In northern Santa Cruz a 5 ft. 6 in. gauge railway has been built from Puerto Deseado north-westward over the table-land north of the dry bed of the Deseado river for about 180 miles. Plans for this line call for an extension north-west to Lake Nahuel Huapi through the 16 de Octubre valley. Puerto Gallegos, capital of the Territory of Santa Cruz, a growing settlement that is competing with the Chilean port of Magallanes as a centre for the sheep-raising region of southern Patagonia, has no rail connections.
Chile in the early days of the republic claimed a large part • of the eastern table-land and as early as 1843 founded the town of Punta Arenas (Magallanes) on the Strait of Magellan. No attempt at settlement, however, was made by the Chilean Government north of the present boundary along the 52nd parallel of latitude and in 1881 a boundary treaty was signed which followed in the main the course of the present boundary in this region. On account of the errone ous knowledge of the topography of the boundary zone the location of the line was not definitely established until 1902 (by arbitral sentence of the king of England) and it was not until 1907 that the demarcation was completed. In 1884 the Argentine Govern ment divided the Patagonian region south of the Negro river into four territories or gobernaciones; Rio Negro (capital, Viedma), Chubut (capital, Rawson), Santa Cruz (capital, Puerto Gallegos), Tierra del Fuego (capital, Ushuaia). Chilean Patagonia up until 1927 was divided into the provinces of Chiloe and Llanquihue (the latter extended somewhat farther north than the limits of Pata gonia as used in this article) and the Territory of Magallanes. In Dec. 1927 the Chilean Government decreed a new arrangement of administrative divisions over the greater part of the republic and divided the Patagonian region into the province of Chiloe (capital Puerto Montt), and the territories of Aysen (capital Puerto Aysen) and Magallanes (capital Magallanes). (See also CHILE and ARGENTINA.) (R. R. P.)