54 



MALDONADO. 



1832-3. 



Considering South America alone^ we should be tempted 

 to believe that trees could not possibly flourish_, excepting in 

 a very humid climate. The limit of the forest land cer- 

 tainly follows^ in a most remarkable manner^ that of the 

 damp winds.* In the southern part of the continent^ where 

 the western gales^ charged with moisture from the Pacific^ 

 prevail^ every island on the broken west coast^ from lat. 38° 

 to the extreme point of Tierra del Fuego is densely covered 

 by impenetrable forest. On the eastern side of the Cor- 

 dillera^ over the same extent of latitude, where a blue sky 

 and a fine climate prove that the atmosphere has been 

 drained of its moisture^ the arid plains of Patagonia support 

 a scanty vegetation. Within the limits of the constant 

 south-east trade wind^ the bulk of the eastern parts of the 

 continent is ornamented by magnificent forests: the west 

 coast, however, from lat. 4° south to lat. 32°, may be de- 

 scribed as a desert. In this case, as before, all the vapour 

 has been condensed by the snow -clad pinnacles of the 

 Andes. In these two areas, determined by the preva- 

 lent winds, the forest and desert lands occupy reversed 

 positions with respect to the great mountain axis. Between 

 their limits a broad intermediate band, which is neither 

 desert nor woodland, stretches across the entire continent. 

 Central Chile and the Provinces of La Plata are included 

 in this division. On the west coast, about four degrees 

 south of the equator, where the trade wind loses its regu- 

 larity, and heavy torrents of rain periodically fall, the desert 

 coast of Peru assumes near Cape Blanco the character of 

 luxuriance so celebrated at Guayaquil and on the shores of 

 Panama. 



After these facts, it will perhaps appear a sufficient 

 answer to the question, to state that according to the South 

 American type of vegetation, the climate of Banda Oriental 

 is too dry for the growth of trees. But this reasoning, I 

 apprehend, must not be extended to a general statement 

 including other countries. The Falklands offer a more per- 

 * Maclaren, art. America, Encyc. Britan. 



