1835., FORMATION OF PEAT. 287 
the English species of the same genera, are different. In the 
more level parts of the country, the surface of the peat is 
broken up into little pools of water, which stand at different 
heights, and appear as if artificially excavated. Small streams 
of water, flowing underground, complete the disorganization of 
the vegetable matter, and consolidate the whole 
The climate of the southern part of America appears particu- 
larly favourable to the production of peat. In the Falkland 
Islands almost every kind of plant, even the coarse grass which 
covers the whole surface of the land, becomes converted into this 
substance: scarcely any situation checks its growth; some of the 
beds are as much as twelve feet thick, and the lower part becomes 
so solid when dry, that it will hardly burn. Although every plant 
lends its aid, yet in most parts the Astelia is the most efficient. 
It is rather a singular circumstance, as being so very different from 
what occurs in Europe, that I nowhere saw moss forming by its 
decay any portion of the peat in South America. With respect 
to the northern limit, at which the climate allows of that peculiar 
kind of slow decomposition which is necessary for its production, 
I believe that in Chiloe (Jat. 41° to 42°), although there is much 
swampy ground, no well characterized peat occurs: but in the 
Chonos Islands, three degrees farther southward, we have seen 
that it is abundant. On the eastern coast in La Plata (lat. 35°) 
I was told by a Spanish resident, who had visited Ireland, that 
he had often sought for this substance, but had never been able to 
find any. He showed me, as the nearest approach to it which he 
had discovered, a black peaty soil, so penetrated with roots as to 
allow of an extremely slow and imperfect combustion. 
Tke zoology of these broken islets of the Chonos Archipelago 
is, as might have been expected, very poor. Of quadrupeds two 
aquatic kinds are common. The Myopotamus Coypus (like a 
beaver, but with a round tail) is well known from its fine fur, 
which is an object of trade throughout the tributaries of La Plata, 
It here, however, exclusively frequents salt water ; which. same 
circumstance has been mentioned as sometimes occurring with 
the great rodent, the Capybara. A small sea-otter is very nu- 
merous ; this animal does not feed exclusively on fish, but, like 
the seals, draws a large supply from a small red crab, which 
