John Spears, newspaper correspondent for «The Sun» of New York, visited Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego in 1894.

The region was still lightly populated, and comparatively unknown to the North American reader. Spears conveys vividly the "frontier" atmosphere of those years.

This collection of newspaper sketches and illustrations was compiled from his reports of that journey, and printed the following year by «The Knickerbocker Press».