Tierra Del Fuego
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Tierra Del Fuego. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an archipelago consisting of a group of several large and numerous small islands, lying off the S. extremity of South America; in lat. 54° S., lon. 70° W.; separated from the continent by the Strait of Magellan. Its extreme S. point is formed by Cape Horn. The principal island, Tierra del Fuego, sometimes known as King Charles South Land, is divided between Chile and Argentine Republic, to the latter of which Staten Island also belongs. All the other islands and islets are included in Chile. The shores of the archipelago are generally much broken by and indented with bays and arms of the sea, with mountains rising abruptly from the water. These fjords, as a rule, contain deep water at their shoreward extremities, with bars, or, more properly, banks at the sea entrances; in this feature, as well as in their scenery, resembling many of the salt water lochs on the W. coast of Scotland. The whole group is mountainous, the high hills of the mainland (Tierra del Fuego) attaining a height of 7,000 feet, the snow line being at an altitude of 4,000 feet above sea-level. There are some dreary plains and a few fertile river valleys, with areas of marshy ground between Useless and St. Sebastian Bays. None of the rivers are important, unless it be the Juarez Celman, which is believed to be navigable for a considerable distance above its mouth. Toward the N. the plains produce good pasturage and sheep farming is carried on. Forests of beech, winter's bark, magnolia, and Few island cypress cover large areas. groups situated so close to continental land exhibit a poorer fauna than is here presented, the guanaco, tucu-tucu (a small rodent), dog, fox, and rat being the quadrupeds, with the exception of only qua the lately introduced farm stock. The dog is is semi-domesticated, and is kept by the natives in immense numbers. Birds, however, are abundant and various, including Vanellus cayanus, Surnia funerea, owls, gulls, falcons, and a great variety of sea birds. Seals and sealions, once almost innumerable along the shores, have grown scarce and wild, especially in the N. portion. The land of Tierra del Fuego is rapidly rising, and the coast line has advanced 3 kilometers since the date of the surveys of Captain ain King (1826-1828) and Fitzroy (1831-1836). The rocks are principally volcanic, but sedimentary strata are not uncommon on the principal island, and probably on Granite, others. some syenite, porphyry, quartz, serpentine, trachite, diorite, and sandstone comprise the principal rocks. Some coal, of a poor description, and a little gold have been found. Settled weather never lasts for more than a fortnight at a time. December, January and February ry are the warmest months. March is exceedingly boisterous always, and during its course occur the most destructive gales. The people are savages of a low type, divided into three tribes, the Onas (or Aonas), the Yaghans, and the Alakalufs, the Yaghans being now supposed to be the aborigines. In the eastern part under the Argentine Government, the population is about 3,000, of whom one-third are whites.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
te-er'ra del fua'go, an archipelago at the southern end of South America . It is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Magellan. The islands have in all an area of 21,000 square miles and a population, chiefly Indian, of several thousand. The natives are regarded as lower in the state of civilization than the Fiji Islanders. There are several fishing stations. Some gold is obtained. The passages between the islands are narrow. The scenery is impressive. The land is desolate. Mountains from 6,000 to 7,000 feet high are covered with snow the year around. The main island is divided between Argentina and Chile. The name signifies "Land of Fire." See Magellan
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts describe a desolate archipelago inhabited by "several thousand" indigenous people; Collier's in 1921 counted about 3,000 on the Argentine side and dismissed them as "savages of a low type." Those peoples were devastated within a generation — the Selk'nam (Ona) were hunted and dispossessed during the sheep-ranching boom, and the last fluent speaker of Yahgan, Cristina Calderón, died in Chile in February 2022, though Selk'nam and Kawésqar descendants survive and have won legal recognition. Meanwhile the islands filled up with newcomers: oil and gas fields were opened on the north of the main island from the 1940s, and Ushuaia, a penal colony in Collier's day, is now a city of tens of thousands and the main jumping-off port for Antarctic cruises. The Chile–Argentina line the entries mention so calmly nearly caused a war in 1978 over three islands in the Beagle Channel, settled by papal mediation in the 1984 Treaty of Peace and Friendship.
Written for this edition, 2026.