1835.] FORMATION OF PEAT. 287 



the English species of the same genera, are different. In the 

 more level parts of the country, the surface of the peat is 

 broken up into little pools of water, which stand at different 

 heights, and appear as if artificially excavated. Small streams 

 of water, flowing underground, complete the disorganization of 

 the vegetable matter, and consolidate the whole 



The climate of the southern part of America appears particu- 

 larly favourable to the production of peat. In the Falkland 

 Islands almost every kind of plant, even the coarse grass which 

 covers the whole surface of the land, becomes converted into this 

 substance : scarcely any situation checks its growth ; some of the 

 beds are as much as twelve feet thick, and the lower part becomes 

 so solid when dry, that it will hardly burn. Although every plant 

 lends its aid, yet in most parts the Astelia is the most efficient. 

 It is rather a singular circumstance, as being so very different from 

 what occurs in Europe, that I nowhere saw moss forming by its 

 decay any portion of the peat in South America. With respect 

 to the northern limit, at which the climate allows of that peculiar 

 kind of slow decomposition which is necessary for its production, 

 I believe that in Chiloe (lat. 41 to 42), although there is much 

 swampy ground, no well characterized peat occurs : but in the 

 Chonos Islands, three degrees farther southward, we have seen 

 that it is abundant. On the eastern coast in La Plata (lat. 35) 

 I was told by a Spanish resident, who had visited Ireland, that 

 he had often sought for this substance, but had never been able to 

 find any. He showed me, as the nearest approach to it which he 

 had discovered, a black peaty soil, so penetrated with roots as to 

 allow of an extremely slow and imperfect combustion. 



The zoology of these broken islets of the Chonos Archipelago 

 is, as might have been expected, very poor. Of quadrupeds two 

 aquatic kinds are common. The Myopotamus Coypus (like a 

 beaver, but with a round tail) is well known from its fine fur, 

 which is an object of trade throughout the tributaries of La Plata. 

 It here, however, exclusively frequents salt water ; which same 

 circumstance has been mentioned as sometimes occurring with 

 the great rodent, the Capybara. A small sea-otter is very nu- 

 merous ; this animal does not feed exclusively on fish, but, like 

 the seals, draws a large supply from a small red crab, which 



