274 CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO. [CHAP. xm. 



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 raagellanica), which by their joint decay com- 

 pose 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 pro- 

 duction 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 decom- 

 position, 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. numniularia), with a woody stem like 

 our cranberry and with a sweet berry, an Empetrum (E. rubrran), 

 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 resemblance 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, com- 

 plete 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 circumstance, as being so very different from what occurs 

 in Europe, that I nowhere saw moss forming by its decay any por- 

 tion 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, we have seen that it is abundant. On 

 the eastern coast in La Plata (lat. 85) I was told by a Spanish 



