406 MANUAL OF THE MOLLUSCA. 



I'uegia the mean temperature is 33°— 50°, and there is rain and snow 

 throughout the year; yet the bases of the mountains are clothed with forests 

 of evergreen beech.* BuUmus sporadlcus is found on the banks of the Iliver 

 Kegro, and B. latescens at the Straits of jMagellan ; Helix hjrata (costel- 

 lata, D'Orb. ?) and H.^«.r«2f«7w inhabit Fuegia. Succima magellauica is also 

 found at the Straits, and Chilinia fluminea, Llnuma viatrix, a Fcdndestrina^ 

 yinodaii puelehanus, and (Into Patagonicus in the River Negro. Teronia 

 niorginata and Botamides aelatus were discovered iu Fuegia by ]Mr. 

 Couthouy. 



The Falkland Islands are 300 miles east of Patagonia, and the only 

 recorded shells are two species of Paladestrina. There is zoological evidence 

 that these islands were united to the mainland of S. America at no very dis- 

 tant geological period. The flora consists of characteristic plants of Fuegia 

 and Patagonia, mingled, and overspreading the whole surface ; few species 

 are peculiar. (J. D. Hooker). f 



Since the preceding pages v.ere in type we have seen the following remark 

 by Dr. Gould, referring to certain statements about the distribution of shells 

 (]). 354). "The doctrine of distinct zoological regions is well illustrated by 

 the mollusca. The many thousand localities carefully noted on the records 

 of the American Exploring Expedition go to prove beyond dispute, that no 

 such random or wide-spread distribution obtains." 



* Humming birds are seen fluttering about delicate flowers, and parrots feeding 

 amidst the eve^green-^vouds. {Dcrnvin, p. 251.) 



+ Dr. Hooker has suggested that not only the Falkland Islands, but the far dis- 

 tant Tristan d'Acunha (p 3!)0) and Kerguelen's-land (p. 392) may be mountain-tops of 

 a continent which has been submerged since the epoch of their existing flora. "There 

 are five detached groups of islands between Fuegia and Kerguelen's land, (a region 

 extending 5,000 miles,) all partaking of the botanical peculiarities of the southern 

 extremity of the S. American continent. Some of these detached spots are much 

 closer to the African and Australian continents, whose vegetation they do not assume, 

 than to the American ; and they are situated in latitudes and under circumstances 

 eminently unfavourable to the migration of species." 



"The botany of Tristan d'Acunha (which is only 1,000 miles distant from the (ape 

 of Good Hope, but 3,000 from the Straits of Magellan) is far more intimately allied to f 

 that of Fuegia than Africa. Of 28 flowering plants, /are natives of Fuegia, or typical 

 of S. American botany." 



" The flora of Kerguelen's-land is similar to, and many of the species identical with, 

 those of the American continent. (Its geological structure) would bespeak an anti- , 

 quity for the flora of this isolated speck on the surface of our globe, far beyond our 

 power of calculation. "We may regard it as the remains of some far more extended 

 body of land."— (Botany of Antarctic Voyage, I. Ft. 2, 1847.) 



