26 CU0N03 ARCHIPELAGO. 



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 ev- 

 ery plant lends its aid, yet in most parts the Aste- 

 lia is the most efficient. It is rather a singular cir- 

 cumstance, as being so very different from what 

 occurs in Europe, that I nowhere saw moss form- 

 ing 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 pro- 

 duction, I believe that in Chiloe (lat. 41° to 42°), 

 although there is much swampy ground, no well- 

 characterized peat occurs ; but in the Chonos Isl- 

 ands, 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 resi- 

 dent, who had visited Ireland, that he had often 

 sought for this substance, but had never been able 

 to hnd any. He showed me, as the nearest ap- 

 proach to it which he had discovered, a black, peaty 

 soil so penetrated with roots as to allow of an ex- 

 tremely slow and imperfect combustion. 



The zoology of these broken islets of the Cho- 

 nos Archipelago is, as might have been expected, 

 very poor. Of quadrupeds two aquatic kinds are 

 common. The Myopotamus Coypus (like a bea- 

 ver, 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, exclu- 

 sively frequents salt water; which same circum- 

 stance has been mentioned as sometimes occurring 

 with the great rodent, the Capybara. A small sea- 

 otter is very numerous : this animal does not feed 

 exclusively on fish, but, like the seals, draws a large 

 supply from a small red crab, which swims in shoals 



