304 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



I found a second species on another species of 

 beech in Chile; and Di*. Hooker informs me, that just 

 lately a third species has been discovered on a third 

 species of beech in Van Diemen's Land. How 

 singular is this relationship between parasitical fun- 

 gi and the trees on which they grow in distant parts 

 of the world ! In TieiTa del Fuego, the fungus, in 

 its tough and mature state, is collected in large quan- 

 tities by the women and children, and is eaten un- 

 cooked. It has a mucilaginous, slightly sweet taste, 

 with a faint smell like that of a mushroom. With 

 the exception of a few berries, chiefly of a dwarf 

 arbutus, the natives eat no vegetable food besides 

 this fungvis. In New Zealand, before the introduc- 

 tion of the potato, the roots of the fern were large- 

 ly consumed; at the present time, I believe, Tier- 

 ra del Fuego is the only country in the world where 

 a cryptogamic plant aftbrds a staple article of food. 

 The zoology of Tierra del Fuego, as might have 

 been expected from the nature of its climate and 

 vegetation, is very poor. Of mammalia, besides 

 whales and seals, there is one bat, a kind of mouse 

 (Reithrodon chinchilloides), two true mice, a cte- 

 nomys allied to or identical with the tucutuco, two 

 foxes (Canis Magellanicus and C. Azarae), a sea- 

 otter, the guanaco, and a deer. Most of these ani- 

 mals inhabit only the drier eastern parts of the 

 country ; and the deer has never been seen south 

 of the Strait of Magellan. Observing the general 

 correspondence of the cliffs of soft sandstone, mud, 

 and shingle, on the opposite sides of the Strait, and 

 on some intervening islands, one is strongly tempted 

 to believe that the land was once joined, and thus 

 allowed animals so delicate and helpless as the tu- 

 cutuco and Reithrodon to pass over. The coiTe- 



name of Cyttaria Darwinii : the Chilian species is the C. Berte 

 roii. This genus is allied to Bulgaria. 



