w>8 CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO. CCHAP- xiii, 



appears too cold and wet to allow of their arriving at perfection ; but 

 in these islands, within the forest, the number of species and great 

 abundance of mosses, lichens, and small ferns, is quite extraordinary.* 

 In Tierra del Fuego trees grow only on the hill-sides ; every level piece 

 of land being invariably covered by a thick bed of peat ; but in Chiloe 

 flat land supports the most luxuriant forests. Here, within the Chonos 

 Archipelago, the nature of the climate more closely approaches that 

 of Tierra del Fuego than that of northern Chiloe ; for every patch 

 of level ground is covered by two species of plants (Astelia pumila 

 and Donatia magellanica), which by their joint decay compose a thick 

 bed of elastic peat. 



In Tierra del Fuego, above the region of woodland, the former of 

 these eminently sociable plants is the chief agent in the production of 

 peat. Fresh leaves are always succeeding one to the other round the 

 central tap-root; the lower ones soon decay, and in tracing a root 

 downwards in the peat, the leaves, yet holding their place, can be 

 observed passing through every stage of decomposition, till the whole 

 becomes blended in one confused mass. The Astelia is assisted by 

 a few other plants, here and there a small creeping Myrtus (M. 

 nummularia), with a woody stem like our cranberry and with a sweet 

 berry, an Empetrum (E. rubrum), like our heath, a rush (Juncus 

 grandiflorus), are nearly the only ones that grow on the swampy 

 surface. These plants, though possessing a very close general resem- 

 blance to 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 particularly 

 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 circum- 

 stance, 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, 



By sweeping with my insect-net, I procured from these situations a 

 considerable number of minute insects, of the family of Staphylinidae, and 

 others allied to Pselaphus, and minute Hymenoptera. But the most cha- 

 racteristic family in number, both of individuals and species, throughout the 

 more open parts of Chiloe and Chonos, is that of the Telephoridsc. 



