European grains and fruits, including the vine, have been successfully introduced, and large areas are now under wheat, maize, flax, and other crops, another source of wealth consisting in the countless herds of cattle and horses and flocks of sheep, which are pastured on the pampas, and which multiply there very rapidly. Gold, silver, nickel, copper, tin, lead, and iron, besides marble, jasper, precious stones, and bitumen, are found in the mountainous districts of the N.W., while petroleum wells have been discovered on the Rio Vermejo; but the development of this mineral wealth has hitherto been greatly retarded by the want of proper means of transport. As a whole there are not extensive forests in the State except in the region of the Gran Chaco (which extends also into Bolivia), where there is known to be 60,000 sq. miles of timber. Thousands of square miles are covered with thistles, which grow to a great height in their season. Cacti also forms great thickets. Peach and apple trees are abundant in some districts. The native fauna includes the puma, the jaguar, the tapir, the llama, the alpaca, the vicuña, armadillos, the rhea or nandu, a species of ostrich, &c. The climate is agreeable and healthy, 97° being about the highest temperature experienced. The rainfall is very scanty in some districts, and is nowhere very large.
As a whole this vast country is very thinly inhabited, some parts of it as yet being very little known. The native Indians were never very numerous, and have given little trouble to the European settlers. Tribes of them yet in the savage state still inhabit the less-known districts, and live by hunting and fishing. Some of the Gran Chaco tribes are said to be very fierce, and European travellers have been killed by them. The European element is strong in the republic, more than half the population being Europeans or of pure European descent. Large numbers of immigrants arrive from Southern Europe, the Italians having the preponderance among those of foreign birth. The typical inhabitants of the pampas are the _Gauchos_, a race of half-breed cattle-rearers and horse-breakers; they are almost continually on horseback, galloping over the plains, collecting their herds and droves, taming wild horses, or catching and slaughtering cattle. In such occupations they require a marvellous dexterity in the use of the lasso and bolas.
