NATURE 



553 



THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1S87 



A NATURALIST IN SOUTH AMERICA^ 

 Notes of a Naturalist in South America. By John Ball, 

 F.R.S., M.R.I.A., &c. (London : Kegan Paul, Trench, 

 and Co., 1887.) 



IL 



LEAVING Valparaiso, and steering southwards 

 amongst the evergreen islands of the South Chilian 

 Archipelago and Fuegia, Mr. Ball encountered all the 

 disagreeables of those inhospitable and desolate regions, 

 signalised by a fall of the barometer and thermometer, 

 gales of wind, (he rolling seas of a tempestuous ocean, 

 fogs, and darkness. And here he observes (and the obser- 

 vation is new to us) that one of the main features of the 

 Andes suffers a great change. The western chain, which 

 runs for 900 miles as an almost continuous range of high 

 land on the coast of Chili, from lat. 40° S. to the Straits 

 of Magellan becomes separated from the range to the east 

 of it by a broad belt of low country including several large 

 lakes. Further south the chain first dips under the ocean, 

 to emerge as the great Island of Chiloe and the Chonos 

 Archipelago, after which it joins the continent again at 

 Cape Tres Montes. Further south is the Gulf of Penas, 

 forty miles wide, beyond which are the famous channels 

 that lead into the Straits of Magellan. The new geo- 

 graphical features are accompanied by a change of 

 climate, and this again is marked by the appearance of 

 many types of the so-called Antarctic (or rather Fuegian) 

 flora, which may be traced northward from Fuegia to the 

 Mountains of Valdivia, and some few of which types, profit- 

 ing by the fogs of the desert region of the Andes, straggle 

 northwards into Northern Chili. In Messier's Channel, lat. 

 50° S., the wild celery of Europe was found, of which Mr. 

 Ball says : " Growing in a region where it is little exposed 

 to sunshine, it has less of the characteristic smell of our 

 wild plant, and the leaves may be eaten raw as salad, or 

 boiled, which is not the case with our plant until the 

 gardener, by heaping soil about the roots, diminishes the 

 pungency of the smell and flavour." " The 5th of June," 

 he goes on to say, " my first day in the channel, will ever 

 remain a bright spot in my memor)'. Wellington Island, 

 which lay on our right, is over 150 miles in length, a 

 rough mountain range, averaging apparently about 300 

 feet in height, with a moderately uniform coast-line. On 

 the other hand, the mainland presents a constantly vary- 

 ing outline, indented by numberless coves and several 

 deep narrow sounds rnnning far into the recesses of the 

 Cordillera. In the intermediate channels crowds of 

 islands, some rising to the size of mountains, some mere 

 rocks peeping above the water, present an endless variety 

 of form and outline. That which gives the scener>' a 

 unique character is the wealth of vegetation that adorns 

 this seemingly inclement region. From the water's edge 

 to a height which I estimated at 1400 feet, the rugged 

 slopes were covered with an unbroken mantle of ever- 

 green trees and shrubs. Above that height the bare 



' Continued from p. 53T, 



Vot-. XXXV.— No. 911 



declivities were clothed with snow, mottled at first by 

 projecting rocks, but evidently lying deep upon the higher 

 ranges. I can find no language to give any impression 

 of the variety of the scenes that followed in quick succes- 

 sion against the bright blue background of a cloudless 

 sky, and lit up by a northern sun that illumined each new 

 prospect as we advanced." 



In another passage the scenery is compared to that of 

 the U pper Lake of Killarney, where the evergreen beeches 

 of Fuegia are represented by the arbutus ; and where, Mr. 

 Ball might have added, similar climatal features nurture 

 a similar wild variety, profusion, and luxuriance of crypto- 

 gamic plants, mosses, ferns, and hepatica', and especially 

 broad foliaceous lichens that grow nowhere else in the 

 northern hemisphere in like number and variety. A further 

 similitude between Fuegia and the south-west of Ireland 

 may be traced in the rock-girt deep sounds that run far 

 into the land of both, and which harbour a marine vegeta- 

 tion that has perhaps no parallel for variety, luxuriance, 

 and beauty in their respective hemispheres. 



The meeting with floating masses of glacier ice in Eyre 

 Sound suggests some excellent remarks on the well-known 

 phenomenon of the depression of the snow-line and of 

 glaciers in this region, as compared with the northern 

 hemisphere. Threading a devious course through the 

 Straits of Magellan, Mr. Ball's enthusiasm rises to a white 

 heat, that warms the land- and sea-scapes of the grim 

 " Land of Desolation." In his eyes, Fuegia's midwinter 

 glows with brilliant hues. It would make Magellan and 

 Del Canot, Narbough and Davis turn in their coffins 

 could they but read Mr. Ball's ecstasies over the features 

 of the countries in which they starved and froze, and 

 where so many of their ill-starred comrades left their 

 bones, after their bodies had endured incredible suffer- 

 ings. No doubt we may attribute much of the rapture 

 experienced by our traveller to the contrast which the 

 luxuriant vegetation and picturesque scenery of Fuegia 

 presented to the dismal sterility of the Peruvian and 

 North Chilian coasts, and more to the keen interest 

 which he took in the botany of the region. Still, though 

 '' Tantus amor florum " may account for a good deal, 

 there is a large measure of beauty in the scenery of 

 Fuegia that he has been the first to analyse, appreciate, 

 and describe with truth and picturesqueness. Take his 

 picture of Mount Sarmiento, for example, a mountain 

 7000 feet high. " Sole sovereign of these Antarctic soli- 

 tudes, I know of no other peak that impresses the mind 

 so deeply with a sense of wonder and awe. As seen from 

 the north, the eastern and western faces are almost equally 

 precipitous, and the broad top is jagged by sharp teeth, of 

 which the two outermost — one to the east, the other to 

 the west — present summits of apparently equal height." 

 Speculating on its geological age, he considers it evident 

 that it is not of volcanic origin, for that no volcanic rock 

 can retain slopes so nearly approaching the vertical. He 

 regards it as a portion of the original rock-skeleton that 

 formed the axis of the Andean Chain during the long 

 ages that preceded the great volcanic outbursts that have 

 covered over the framework of the western side of South 

 America, and that in the course of upheaval its flanks 

 have been carved by marine action to the nearly vertical 

 form which impresses the beholder. 



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