Chubut

Chubut, a territory of the southern Argentine Republic, part of what was formerly called Patagonia, bounded N. by Rio Negro, S. by Santa Cruz, E. by the Atlantic and W. by Chile. Pop. (1895) 3748; (1904, estimate) 9060; area, 93,427 sq. m. Except for the valleys in the Andean foothills, 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 barren waste, covered with pebbles and scanty clumps of 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 foothills, the best known of which are Fontana, La Plata and General Paz, and, in the interior, Colhuapi or Colhué and Musters, the latter named after the English naval officer who traversed Patagonia in 1870. Petroleum was found at Comodoro Rivadavia, in the S. part of the territory, toward the close of 1907, at a depth of 1768 ft. Chubut is known chiefly by the Welsh colony near the mouth of the Chubut 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 foothills, but their growth is greatly impeded by lack of transportation facilities. (See further Patagonia.)