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 (latitude 41 to 42 degrees), although there is much
swampy ground, no well-characterised 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 (latitude 35 degrees) 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.
The 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.
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