THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 79 



small — not a sixth of the size of those with which we are fami- 

 liar. I was interested by observing that, in the western part of 

 the Strait, where the following species prevails at the level of 

 the sea and for a considerable distance up the mountain sides, 

 almost to the exclusion of the deciduous beech, a well-marked 

 zone of the latter is often to be met with above the evergreen 

 woods, and small stunted bushes also frequently occur on the 

 summits of the mountains, at a height of 1500 to 2000 feet. 

 In autumn, this deciduous zone becomes peculiarly well marked, 

 in consequence of its light reddish-brown colour, which con- 

 trasts remarkably with the dark green hues of the woods below. 

 The evergreen beech {Fagus hetuloides) which, from its 

 peculiar characters, was not recognised to be a species of this 

 genus by the earlier voyagers, some of whom seem to have 

 regarded it as a species of myrtle, is, upon the whole, the 

 commonest tree from the westward of Port Famine, throughout 

 the Strait, and along the west coast of Patagonia, as far as the 

 Chonos Archipelago, where the character of the vegetation is 

 rather more diversified. It sometimes attains a considerable 

 size where the individual tree has space to develop itself, but I 

 do not think ever equals the antarctic species in either height 

 or bulk, and, as a rule, the trees of it grow so close together, 

 that they seldom exceed 15 or 20 feet in height. The bark is 

 smooth and of a gray colour, a good deal resembling that of the 

 common beech, and the leaves are oval, crenulated, or serrated 

 at the edges, and of a dark shining green colour. They vary 

 much in size in different situations : those most exposed to the 

 winds being, in general, much smaller than those that grow 

 in more sheltered localities. They never exhibit those folds 

 which the young leaves of the antarctic species do, in com- 

 mon with these of our native beech. The wood of both the 

 antarctic and the evergreen species is, I believe, of rather good 



