The Argentine portion of Patagonia includes the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, as well as the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego archipelago.

The Chilean part of Patagonia embraces the southern part of Valdivia, Los Lagos in Lake Llanquihue, Chiloé, Puerto Montt and the Archaeological site of Monte Verde, also the fiords and islands south to the regions of Aisén and Magallanes, including the west side of Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn.

They also appear on the flags of the Australian state of Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, as well as the flag of Magallanes Region of Chile, the flag of Londrina ( Brazil ) and several Argentine provincial flags and emblems ( for example, Tierra del Fuego and Santa Cruz ).

* Cordillera Darwin, Tierra del Fuego

* Mount Darwin ( Andes ), Tierra del Fuego

Consequently, in 1615 Isaac Le Maire and Samuel Blommaert, assisted by others, focused on finding a south-westerly route around the Tierra del Fuego, in order to circumvent the monopoly of the VOC.

Recent discoveries of arrowheads in Lafonia ( on the southern half of East Falkland ) as well as the remains of a wooden canoe provide evidence that suggests the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego may have made the journey to the islands.

The first report of his discovery of an open channel south of Tierra del Fuego was written after the 1618 publication of the voyage of Willem Schouten and Jacob le Maire around Cape Horn in 1616.

It considers the archipelago part of the Tierra del Fuego Province, along with South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

-Paleo-Indians reach the Tierra del Fuego.

They might also have used smoke signals on other occasions, thus it is possible that Magellan saw such fires ( which inspired him to name the landscape Tierra del Fuego ) but he may have seen the smoke or lights of natural phenomena.

The three Fuegian missionaries the expedition returned to Tierra del Fuego were friendly and civilised, yet to Darwin their relatives on the island seemed " miserable, degraded savages ", and he no longer saw an unbridgeable gap between humans and animals.

Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for " Fireland " or " Land of Fire ") is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan.

The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of, and a group of smaller islands including Cape Horn.

Today's economic activity in the northern part of Tierra del Fuego is dominated by petroleum extraction while in the south tourism, manufacturing and Antarctic logistics are important.

Tierra del Fuego hosts large areas protected as national parks and reserves, most of them in the mountainous south.

Satellite image of Tierra del Fuego

The Yaghan people were some of the earliest known humans settling in Tierra del Fuego, with certain recognizable archeological sites at locations such as Navarino Island within the islands of Tierra del Fuego.

The name Tierra del Fuego derives from the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing for the Spanish Crown, who was the first European to visit these lands in 1520.

The very existence of Tierra del Fuego as one or more islands and not as part of Terra Australis was first inferred by Francisco de Hoces in 1525, then by Francis Drake in 1578 and in 1616 by a Dutch VOC expedition who named Cape Horn.

Four native Fuegians, including " Jemmy Button " ( Orundellico ), were brought from Tierra del Fuego by Robert FitzRoy on his first voyage with the HMS Beagle in 1830.

& Puerta, Pablo ( 2003 ): Description of the earliest fossil penguin from South America and first Paleogene vertebrate locality of Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina.

According to the Boundary treaty of 1881 Tierra del Fuego was divided between Argentina and Chile ; previously it was claimed by both countries in its entirety.

Mine field in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Chile, photograph from 2006

Tierra del Fuego, showing current ( 2011 ) international boundaries of Chile and Argentina

During the 1940s Chile and Argentina formulated their Antarctic claims, and governments realized the key role of Tierra del Fuego's geographical proximity in backing their claims as well as to supply their Antarctic bases.

* Chile Cultural Society – Tierra del Fuego

The story was perhaps influenced by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on the Pacific island called " Más a Tierra " ( in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island ), Chile.

From Chiloé to Wellington Island, Chile is antipodal to Mongolia, including the capital Ulan Bator, while the Straits of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego correspond to southern Siberia and Lake Baikal, with Puerto Natales antipodal to Ulan Ude, the capital of the Russian republic of Buryatia.

The Divide continues into South America, where it follows the peaks of the Andes Mountains, traversing western Colombia, central Ecuador, western and southwestern Peru, and eastern Chile ( essentially conforming to the Chile-Bolivia and Chile-Argentina boundaries ), southward to the southern end of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

Its range includes South America from Ecuador through Bolivia, northern Argentina, and Chile to Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands.

They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Argentina and Chile ( principally Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego ).

On March 23, 1561, Aguirre urged 186 captains and soldiers to sign an act which would proclaim him as prince of Peru, Tierra Firma and Chile.

: Lord of Tierra Firme and the Provinces of Chile

The eastern opening is a wide bay on the border of Chile and Argentina between Punta Dúngeness on the mainland and Cabo del Espíritu Santo on Tierra del Fuego, the border as defined in the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina.

With an area of, Chiloé Island is the second largest island in Chile, after the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, and the fifth largest in South America.

Individuals have been found on the coasts of Chile, Tierra del Fuego, Namibia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

As of 1991, there are about 140 records ( nearly all strandings ) of this species from New Zealand ( 50, including one sighting ), Australia ( over 40 ), southern Africa ( about 40 ), southern Argentina and Tierra del Fuego ( 10 ), southern Chile ( 4 ), Falkland Islands ( 3 ), and Uruguay ( 1 ).

The Coscoroba Swan breeds in South America from southern Chile and central Argentina south to Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands.

Departing from Hampton Roads on August 18, 1838, the expedition stopped at the Madeira Islands and Rio de Janeiro ; visited Tierra del Fuego, Chile, Peru, the Tuamotu Archipelago, Samoa, and New South Wales ; from Sydney, Australia sailed into the Antarctic Ocean in December 1839 and reported the discovery " of an Antarctic continent west of the Balleny Islands " of which it sighted the coast on January 25, 1840.

* Picton, Lennox and Nueva, islands off Tierra del Fuego, Chile

The first ship, MV Logos, ran aground on rocks off Tierra del Fuego, Chile, in atrocious weather conditions.

It lives on the west coast of South America, from Lobos de Tierra Island in Peru to Pupuya Islet in Chile.