130 



C. SKOTTSBERG 



■■•'^smm«(m>m^'i«»''--v»mmm-!'- 





»««3l^ '^ 





Fig. 44. The entrance to Bahia del Padre. — Photo C. Skottsberg ^^/i 191 7. 



I am tempted to endorse his opinion. Both Ouensel and Hagerman came to the 

 conclusion that the rocks have been subject to post-volcanic thermal processes, and 

 Hagerman, after a description of the palagonite tuff from Puente, writes: "Stellt 

 man diese verschiedenen Bildungen aus der Nahe der Padrebucht zusammen, so 

 gelangt man zu der Auffassung, dass dieses Gebiet frische Spuren vulkanischer 

 Tatigkeit aufweist" (p. 26). 



On the naked sand we found many living beetles (no reference is made to them 

 in vol. Ill) and empty shells of four species of landshells, Fernandezia tryoni Pils- 

 bry, Succinea fernandi Reeve (also in sand at Tierra Blanca), 5. texia Odhner and 

 kS". semiglobosa Pfeifif. (also in sand on Santa Clara). These delicate creatures of the 

 humid forests are entirely unfamiliar to these dry and barren surroundings, and it 

 is difficult to account for the presence of these shells here as well as at Tierra 

 Blanca and on Santa Clara. Are they a testimony of a more humid climate per- 

 mitting some kind of brushwood to exist, a period during which the concretions 

 mentioned above (p. lOi) were formed.? Or did dwarf trees such as Dendroseris 

 litoralis, Rea pruiuata and Chenopoditim Sanctae Clarae, on which landshells lived, 

 grow here in historical time but before goats were introduced? Certain facts do speak 

 in favour of this theory. A few specimens of Rea and Dendroseris still occur on the 

 south coast of Masatierra, particularly on M. Viiiillo and on M. Juanango, where the 

 goats cannot get them. What did this now barren country look like when the islands 



