ooours, is most favourable to tho “Towtli of trees ; on the
outer coast the poorer granitic soil, anil a situation more
exposed to the \ iolent winds, do not allow of their att.aming
any great size. Near I’ort li’aminc 1 have seen more large
trees than any where e ls e : 1 measured a winter’s bark
which was four feet six inehes in girth, and several of the
beech were thirteen feet. Captain King also mentions one
of the latter whioh was seven feet in diameter, seventeen
feet above the roots.
The zoology of Tierra del Fuego, as might have been expected
from the nature of its climate and vegetation, is very
poor. Of mammalia, besides Cetacea and Fhocic, there is
one bat. a mouse with grooved front teeth [Rcithrodon of
AA'aterliouse'), and two otlier species, the tucutuco (the
greater number of these rodents are confined to the eastern
and dry part), a fox, sea-otter, guanaco, and one deer. The
latter animal is rare, and is not, I believe, to be found south
of the Strait of Magellan, as happens with the others.
Observing the general correspondence of the cliffs of soft
sandstone, mud, and shingle, on the opposite sides of the
Strait, together with those on some intervening islands, one
is strongly tempted to believe that the land was once joined,
and thus allowed animals so delicate and helpless as the
tucutuco, and Reithrodon, to pass over. The correspondence
of the chffs is far from proving any junction; because such
chffs generally are formed by the intersection of sloping
deposits, which, before the elevation of the land, had been
accumulated near the then existing shores. It is, however,
a remarkable coincidence, that in the two large islands cut
off by the Beagle channel from the rest of Tierra del Fuego,
one has chffs composed of matter that may be called stratified
alluvium, which front similar ones on the opposite side of the
channel,—while the other is exclusively bordered by the older
rocks: in the former, called Navarin Island, both foxes and
guanacoes occur; but in the latter, Hoste Island, although
similar in every respect, and only separated by a clianncl a
little more than half a mile wide, I have the word of Jemmy
Buitoii for saying that n<;itlicr of those animals are found.
I must confess to an exception to the rule, iri the presence
of a small mouse, of a species occurring likewise in I’ata-
gonia.
I'lie gloomy woods arc inhabited hy few birds : oecasion-
allythe plaintive note of a white tufted tyrariftflyeateher may
he heard, concealed near the summit of the most lofty trees ;
and more rarely the loud strange cry of a black woodpecker,
with a fine scarlet crest on its head. A little, dusky-coloured
wren (Scytalopas fuscus) hops in a .skulking manner among
the entangled mass of the fallen and decaying trunks. But
the creeper [SynaUaxis Tupinieri) is the commonest bird in
the country. Throughout the beech forests, high up and low
down, in the most gloomy, wet, and impenetrable ravines, it
may be met with. This little bird no doubt appears more
numerous than it really is, from its habit of following, with
seeming curiosity, any person who enters these shent woods ;
continually uttering a harsh twitter, it flutters from tree to
tree, within a few feet of the intruders face. It is far from
wishing for the modest concealment of the true creeper
[Certhia familiaris), nor does it, like that bird, run up and
down the trunks of trees ; but industriously, after the manner
of a willow wren, hops about, and searches for insects on
every twig and branch. In the more open parts three or
four species of finches, a thrush, a starhng (or Icterus), two
furnarii, and several hawks and owls occur.
The absence of any species whatever in the whole class of
Reptiles is a marked feature in the zoology of tliis country, as
well as in that of the Falkland Islands. I do not ground this
statement merely on my own observation, but I heard it
from the Spanish inhabitants of the latter place, and from
Jemmy Button with regard to Tierra del Fuego. On the
banks of the St. Cruz in 60° south, I saw a frog; and it is
not improbable that these animals, as well as lizards, may
he found as far south as the Strait of Magellan, where the
couiitrv retains the character of Pat.agonia : but within the
i!!|
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