350 



CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO. 



Jan. 1835. 



cranberry^ but with a sweet berry ; another [Empetrum ru- 

 brum) like our heathy and a third {Juncus grandiflorus) a 

 rush ; are nearly the only ones that grow on the swampy sur- 

 face. These plants, though possessing a very close general 

 resemblance to the English kinds, are botanically dif- 

 ferent. 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 exca- 

 vated. Small streams of water, flowing under ground, com- 

 plete the disorganization of the vegetable matter, and con- 

 solidate the whole. 



The climate of the southern part of America appears par- 

 ticularly favourable to the production of peat. In the Falk- 

 land Islands, almost every kind of plant, even the coarse 

 grass which covers the whole surface of the island, becomes 

 converted into this substance. I was at first at a loss to 

 imagine how so much peat had been formed ; but the conver- 

 sion of the grass at once explains it. I observed that even 

 some bones of cattle, strewed on the surface, were nearly 

 covered up by the decaying matter at the foot of the blades 

 of withered grass. Scarcely any situation checks its 

 growth ; it overhangs the banks of running streams, and 

 encroaches on the piles of loose angular fragments of quartz 

 rock. Some of the beds are of considerable thickness, even 

 as much as twelve feet : the peat in the lower part is earthy, 

 and completely altered, and when dry, becomes so solid 

 that it ignites with difficulty. No doubt, although every 

 plant lends its aid in the process, yet the Astelia is the 

 most efficient. It is rather a singular circumstance, as 

 being so very different from what occurs in Europe, that no 

 kind of moss forms 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 the production of peat^ I believe that in 

 Chiloe (lat. 41° to 42°), although there is much swampy 

 ground, no well-characterized substance of this nature 



