Hans Steffen
Hans Steffen Hoffman was a German geographer and explorer of the Aysén Region in western Patagonia. Steffen also worked as a teacher, encyclopedist and historian. Steffen Glacier on the Northern Patagonian Ice Field is named after him.Biography
In 1889, Hans Steffen, who had obtained his doctorate in 1886, was invited by José Manuel Balmaceda to Santiago, where he became a teacher of history and geography at the Instituto Pedagógico de Chile of the University of Chile.
He was later contracted to join the Chilean boundary commission to explore areas disputed by Argentina in what is now the Aysén Region of Chile.
The areas to be explored were those affected by article 1 of the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina:
This article led to dispute between whether the continental divide would serve as a boundary favouring Chile or the highest peaks favouring Argentina. The two interpretations coincided for most of the boundary but in the Aysén Region there were great differences. Before the explorations of Steffen, Chile had made only limited hydrographic surveys along the intricate Pacific coast of Aysén. The inland areas in dispute had been mainly explored by Argentines, notably Francisco Perito Moreno.
Between 1893 and 1894 he explored with the Chilean Navy the basins of the Palena and Puelo Rivers. He explored the Manso, Aisén and Cisnes Rivers from 1896 to 1898. He then moved on to explore the channels south of Taitao Peninsula mapping and describing the Gulf of Penas, and then exploring and naming Baker, Bravo and Pascua Rivers. He also crossed the Isthmus of Ofqui. Following the Pascua River, Steffen and his companions were the first to arrive at O'Higgins Lake from the Pacific as well the first to explore its western arms.
