926 



C. SKOTTSBERG 



north of Quebrada de las Casas receives less rain because the dominating SE 

 — SW winds discharge most of their moisture over the higher country to the 

 south. It is dissected by a series of parallel valleys not forming canyons, and 

 the ridges separating them are gently sloping, rather wide plains. The coast 

 cliffs are horded by talus and it is possible to make a circuit of the island along 

 the shore from Quebrada Sanchez round the east and south side and north along 

 the west cliff-wall to the end of Play a Larga. At Loberi'a Vieja are a number of 

 old huts from the time of the convict settlement. At the place called Buque 

 Varado is a small promontory formed by alluvial deposits; it is inaccessible ex- 

 cept perhaps with a very calm sea, an extremely rare event on this side of the 

 island, and even then landing must be hazardous. The talus of Tolten, a shal- 

 low bay at the northern end of the island, frequented by the langust-fishers, is 

 covered with grassland. Unfortunately it is hardly possible to proceed from here 

 either up to the table-land or along the beach. The regular landing place is a 

 rock at the south head-land of Quebrada de las Casas, but one may have to 

 watch for an opportunity. The jetty once built for the settlement was destroyed 

 by the sea. Plates 104:2, 109, iio and 116: i and text figs. 38 — 41 will give an 

 idea of the topography; for further information I refer to Pt. I, no. 4.' 



General Distribution of the Plant Communities. 



Contrary to Masatierra, Masafuera reaches a height sufficient to give birth 

 to a climatic timber-line and, above this, to a series of heath-communities lacking 

 in the other island. Besides, we find the same formations as on Masatierra, the 

 evergreen forest and the grass-land, while a scrub comparable to the scrub on 

 Masatierra is very poorly represented. From the reports of the early visitors 

 we can come to no other conclusion than that the island was well wooded as 

 late as in the middle of the i8th century and that the forest went farther down 

 than now, perhaps to near sea-level in some valleys. When and under which 

 circumstances destruction set in we cannot tell, but I think that w^e are not 

 mistaken if we put the ravage in connection with the search for sandal-wood, 

 of which pieces have been found buried in the soil in many places; names like 

 Quebrada del Sandalo, Q. del Sandalito and Rodado del Sandalo bear witness 

 of the one-time large distribution of a species of Santaluni. It must have become 

 extinct before 1830, when Cuming visited the island as the first collector of plants. 

 No scientist ever saw it and we shall never know whether it was identical with 

 ^. fernandezianmn or belonged to a vicarious species or variety. Unfortunately, 

 none of the few naturalists who visited Masafuera gave a description of the state 

 of the forests. The island remained uninhabited until 1909, when a convict settle- 

 ment with its base near the entrance to Quebrada de las Casas was established, 

 but it was abandoned after a few years. The condition of the forest was much 

 the same in 191 7 as in 1908, when I visited the island for the first time, al- 

 though the encroach made after 1909 was visible in many places. Some forest 

 had been burnt or cut by the inmates of the penal colony, huts of native tim- 



' To be published in 1953. 



