232 TIERRA DEL FUEGO AND THE WEST COAST. [CHAF. xi. 



the most abundant shells were three species of Oliva (one of large 

 size), one or two Volutas, and a Terebra. Now, these are amongst 

 the best characterized tropical forms. It is doubtful whether even 

 one small species of Oliva exists on the southern shores of Europe, 

 and there are no species of the two other genera. If a geologist 

 were to find in Jat. 39 on the coast of Portugal a bed containing 

 numerous shells belonging to three species of Oliva, to a Yoluta 

 and Terebra, he would probably assert that the climate at the 

 period of their existence must have been tropical ; but, judging 

 from South America, such an inference might be erroneous. 



The equable, humid, and windy climate of Tierra del Fuego 

 extends, with only a small increase of heat, for many degrees along 

 the west coast of the continent. The forests, for 600 miles north- 

 ward of Cape Horn, have a very similar aspect. As a proof of the 

 equable climate, even for 300 or 400 miles still further northward, 

 I may mention that in Chiloe (corresponding in latitude with the 

 northern parts of Spain) the peach seldom produces fruit, whilst 

 strawberries and apples thrive to perfection. Even the crops of 

 barley and wheat * are often brought into tfie, houses to be dried 

 and ripened. At Yaldivia (in the same latitude of 40, with 

 Madrid) grapes and figs ripen, but are not common ; olives seldom 

 ripen even partially, and oranges not at all. These fruits, in 

 corresponding latitudes in Europe, are well known to succeed 

 to perfection; and even in this continent, at the Eio Negro, 

 under nearly the same parallel with Yaldivia, sweet potatoes 

 (convolvulus) are cultivated; and grapes, figs, olives, oranges, 

 water and musk melons, produce abundant fruit. Although the 

 humid and equable climate of Chiloe, and of the coast northward 

 and southward of it, is so unfavourable to our fruits, yet the native 

 forests, from lat. 45 to 38, almost rival in luxuriance those of the 

 glowing intertropical regions. Stately trees of many kinds, with 

 smooth and highly coloured barks, are loaded by parasitical mono- 

 cotyledonous plants; large and elegant ferns are numerous, and 

 arborescent grasses entwine the trees into one entangled mass to 

 the height of thirty or forty feet above the ground. Palm-trees 

 grow in lat. 37 ; an arborescent grass, very like a bamboo, in 40 ; 

 and another closely allied kind, of great length, but not erect, 

 flourishes even as far south as 45 S. 



An equable climate, evidently due to the large area of sea coin- 

 * Agiicros, Descrip. Hibt. th> la Piov. tic Chiloe. 1791, p. 94. 



