Pastushkoe Soglasia is the name of a Rus- sian sect of Dissenters. They were founded by a shep- herd, and their chief peculiarities were that they held the marriage tie to be indissoluble by any human power, and that it is sinful to carrj- fasting so far as to injure health or destroy life.
Patseci, Phoenician gods, whose images were used as ornaments to their ships.
Patagonia, the most southern country- of South America, in lat. 380-53° S., and in long. G2='40'-75^ 40' W., bounded on the north by the Argentine Republic and the Eio Negro, which separates it from the Pam- pas ; on the north-west by the Chilian territories; on the west by the Pacific; on the south by the Strait of Magellan, which separates it from Tierra del Fuego; and on the east hy the Atlantic; has an area of about 350,000 square miles, and a population estimated at about 100,000. The coast of the Atlantic is much broken by extensive bays and inlets, none of which, however, are of much importance or advantage in a commercial point of view. Along the western coast} and stretching from 42° S. to the Strait of Magellan, are numerous islands, of which the principal are Chiloe, the Chonos Archipelago, Wellington Island, the Archipelago of Madre de Dios, Queen Adelaide's Archipelago, and Desolation Island. These islands — which, together with several peninsulas, form a coast almost as rugged as that of Norway — are mountainous; but in none of them, except in Desolation Island, do the mountains rise to the snow-line.
Surface, Soil, etc. — The country is divided by the great mountain-range of the Andes into Eastern and Western Patagonia. The latter, comprising the coast districts and the islands, is rugged and mountainous. Opposite the island of Chiloe are two active volcanoes, one of which, Minchinmavida, is 8000 feet high. The slope of the country from the Andes to the Pacific is so steep, and the strip of shore so narrow, that the largest river of this district has its origin only about thirteen miles from its embouchure on the coast. In the island of Chiloe, in the north of Western Patagonia, the mean temperature of winter is about 40°, that of summer rather above 50°; while at Port Famine, in the extreme south of this region, and 800 miles nearer antarctic lat- itudes than Chiloe, the mean temperature is not much lower, being in winter about 33°, and in summer about 50°. This unusually small difference in the mean tem- perature of the extremes of Western Patagonia, which extends over about 14° of latitude, is due to the great dampness of the atmosphere all along the coast. The prevailing winds of this region blow from the west; and, heavily surcharged with the moisture they have drawn from the immense wastes of the Pacific Ocean,
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they strike against the Andes, are thoroughly condensed by tlie cold high mountains, and fall in rains that are almost perpetual from Chiloe to the Strait of Magellan. South of 47° S. latitude hardly a day passes without a fall of rain, snow, or sleet. Tiiis continual dampness has produced forests of almost tropical luxuriance. A kind of deer wanders on the east side of the mountains ; pumas and water-fowl are mot with ; and, along the coast, seals, otters, sea-elephants, fish, and shell-lish are found.
Eastern Patagonia, called the plains, comprises by far the larger portion of Patagonia, and extends eastward from the Andes to the Atlantic. Its surface has not yet been thoroughly explored, and is described only in the most general terms. According to these accounts East- em Patagonia, from its northern to its southern limits, is an immense stony, shinglj' waste, generally level, but gradually rising in terraced steppes from the Atlantic to the Cordilleras. The elevation of the highest of these terraces is about 3000 feet. The surface is covered with stones and pebbles, mixed with earth of a whitish color, overlying great masses of porphyry, and strewn with immense boulders. Thorny brushwood, tufts of coarse brown grass, and towards the west basaltic ridges, break the dead level of the dreary landscape. The soil is strongly impregnated with saltpetre. Salt lakes of ev- ery variety of extent and level abound. Many of these lakes are surrounded by a brilliant snow-white crust; the waters of some of them are cold in summer and hot in winter, while in others the waters are poisonous. Extending along the south coast for several hundred miles there is a great deposit of tertiary strata, under- lying a stratum of a white pumaceous substance, a tenth part of which is marine infusoria. Sea-shells are scat- tered everywhere across the country, and salt is every- where abundant, from which circumstance it has been inferred that this tract was once a sea-bottom. The air of Eastern Patagonia is generally dry and hot, de- riving no moisture from the prevailing west winds, which pass over the plains after having been drained by the Andes. Hurricanes, however, cutting and frigid, sweep over the plains with great fury, stripping the hides from the roofs of the 7-oul:aIis or huts, and para- lyzing the inhabitants with cold and fear. The above account, though in general correct, must be supple- mented as well as modified by a few facts as to the sur- face from one who recently lived for three years in Pat- agonia and its vicinity. According to M. Gninnard, the country along the banks of the Kio Negro is for the most part mountainous, and is intersected by deep rav- ines; but it is not, as has hitherto been believed, com- pletely sterile, for, on the contrary, the escarped banks of the river are sometimes abundantly fertile. The same traveller further estimates that one third of the entire area of this country — which has hitherto been described as barren — is of great fertility, especially the regions on the east coast and on the Strait of Magellan in the south. Along the eastern base of the Andes also, the great tract of territory called Los iSer)-anvs is aston- ishingly ])icturescpie and fertile. Here great forests abouuil, to which the Indians retire for shelter from the freezing winds of winter. There are also deep valleys furrowed by mountain torrents; and numerous lakes, the haunts of wild duck and other water-fowl, which would delight the European sportsman, but which are never disturbed by the Indians, and are almost as tame as barn-yard fowls. Except pasture, Eastern Patago- nia has no productions. However fertile the soil in some places may be, it is nowhere cultivated. The In- dians live upon the produce of the chase alone, and seem to desire no better sustenance. Tlie principal rivers are the Kio Negro; the Cluipat, which tlows through a good soil, producing excellent jiasture and good fire- wood; and the Santa Cruz, which fiows through a bar- ren district, in a valley from one to live miles wide, and 1400 feet below the level of tlie plain. All these rivers rise in the Andes; the Chupat tlows east, and the others