Patagonian Desert whom 3,000 ended up in Buenos Aires separated by sexes to avoid their procreation. The boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina bought most of the desert under definitive Argentine sovereignty; previously Chile had claimed varying now Argentine areas under claims of inherited colonial titles. In the few decades before and after 1900 the less dry parts of the Patagonian steppe experienced a sheep farming boom, transforming the region into one of the world's greatest exporters of ovine products. The area is sparsely populated today and those that do live here survive mainly by the raising of livestock such
In the Desert an interaction between a primary voice reporting an incident ("In the desert / I saw a creature, naked, bestial") and a second character representing a position which is perceived to be inferior. The primary speaker assumes a dominant role over the "creature". "In the Desert" also serves as an example of Crane's tendency to state universal truths, and this leads to Crane's use of abstraction. Though Crane has this tendency, his use of abstraction is tempered by his allegory and parable. Crane uses only two characters in a general form, the speaker and the creature, and both characters serve the