946 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I BOTANY. 



del Fuego present the same dreary aspect as before, with occasional hills. 

 But on passing Punta Arenas, and entering the Magdalena Channel, 

 which is the usual route for reaching the southern part of the Archipelago, 

 one finds the picture change as if by magic. On all sides of the narrow 

 winding channels, are lofty mountains, clothed from base to summit with 

 fresh and gay forest verdure ; and behind are peaks covered with per- 

 petual snow, whilst glaciers and cascades abound. The forests are im- 

 penetrable, beech-trees overgrown by lichens, mosses, small filmy ferns, 

 all delighting in the moisture; and many herbs with showy flowers, 

 orchids, compositae, violets, blackberries, growing amid the forests. The 

 forests themselves continue far up the hills, the trees becoming smaller as 

 one ascends, and also becoming more intricately woven together ; not 

 ceasing usually until they reach an altitude of some 500 meters. The 

 dwarf forms of the southern beech, Nothofagus antarctica (which is not 

 antarctic], here forms a barrier which cannot be passed save by hewing 

 the way with an axe. No such forest-life is known elsewhere, even in 

 cold-temperate regions. Alboff, calling southwestern Fuegia hyetoph- 

 ilous, because of its great moisture, and in contrast with the xerophi- 

 lous climate of the steppe lands of east Patagonia, would call the south- 

 eastern part of Fuegia, and of the adjacent Staaten Islands, mesohyetic, 

 or with mean-moisture. At Orange Bay, near Cape Horn, the rainfall is 

 about twice as great as the mean, being 150 cm. (60 in.) per annum. 

 The southern part of the Archipelago, especially along the Beagle Chan- 

 nel, with the islands of Navarin, Sta. Ines, Hoste, and Cape Horn present 

 very peculiar structural and botanical features. Most significant are the 

 numerous cases of identity, or close affinity with plants in Kerguelen 

 Id., Southern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the southern spo- 

 radic islands. For example the most beautiful shrub in existence is the 

 Veronica elliptica, of Fuegia and New Zealand, an extraordinary case of 

 discontinuity. (See p. 722.) 



The name Tierra del Fuego, the land of fire, was given by Magellan 

 because of the numerous fires kept burning by the natives, as incidental 

 to open-air life in such latitudes. The name Cape Horn commemorates 

 the Dutch Seaman who wore his ship round the south and proved that 

 the land did not extend to the south pole. Its other name Cape Stiff, is 

 more descriptive, for its fierce eastward winds and its high "gray beards" 

 or waves, compel seamen to avoid it in their westward passage ; thus 



