MARINE PROVINCES. 171 



the coast of Peru, and 172 in Chili. Hupe has described 201 

 species in Ga3^'s work on Chili. The island of Juan Fernandez 

 is included within this province. 



The shells of this region are remarkable for melanism. Chiton, 

 Pissiirella, Concholepas, Monocei-as, Mytilus are predominant, 

 and represented b}' large and fine species. 



D'Orbigny in comparing the Peruvian fauna with those of 

 Brazil, the Argentine Republic and Northern Patagonia mentions 

 the remarkabfe fact that of 628 marine species, one only {Sipho- 

 naria Lessonii) lives on both shores of South America. A cold 

 ocean current flows northwards on the West Coast of South 

 America, and has doubtless greatly influenced the distribution 

 of the mollusca. 



XV. Magellanic or Antarctic Province. 



This region includes the coasts of Tierra del Fuego, the Falk- 

 land Islands (Maloinas), and the mainland of South America, 

 from P. Melo, on the east coast, to Concepcion, on the west. 

 Fischer has very properly added to this Province Kerguelen's 

 and neighboring islands, intermediate geographically between 

 America and New Zealand, but the mollusks of which are prin- 

 cipally American. It is described by M. d'Orbigny and Mr. 

 Darwin (Journal, p. 177 et seq.). Philippi also has given 

 attention to it : he assigns 88 species to the district near the 

 Straits of Magellan. Only 15 species are known from the 

 Maloinas, and 11 of these have not been met with elsewhere. 

 The southern and western coasts are amongst the wildest and 

 stormiest in the world ; glaciers in many places descend into the 

 sea, and the passage round Cape Horn has often to be made 

 amidst icebergs floating from the south polar continent. The 

 greatest tides in the straits amount to 50 feet. " In Tierra del 

 Fuego the giant sea-weed (Macrocystis pyrifera) grows on every 

 rock from low-water mark to 45 fathoms, both on the outer coast 

 and within the channels ; it not only reaches up to the surface, 

 but spreads over man}^ fathoms and shelters multitudes of 

 marine animals, including beautiful compound Ascidians, various 

 patelliform shells, Trochi, naked mollusca, cuttle-fish, and 

 attached bivalves. The rocks at low water, also abound with 

 shell-fish which are very different in their character from those 

 of corresponding northern latitudes, and even when the genera 

 are identical the species are of much larger size and more 

 vigorous growth." 



Shell-fish are here the chief support of the natives as well as of 

 the wild animals. At Low's harbor a sea-otter was killed in the 

 act of carrying to its hole a large Yolute, and in Tierra del Fuego 

 one was seen eating a cuttle-fish, — Darwin. 



A certain number of Arctic genera, which are not found in 



