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Show 1832-3. MALDONADO. 54 hould be tempted . S th America alone, we s . t'ng in Considenng ou t ossibly ftounsh, excep 1 to believe that tr~es could ;~e 1mit of the forest land cer-very humid chmate. k ble manner, that of the :ainly follows, in a most ~emarp:rt of the continent, w~ere d winds.* In the sout e~n . ture from the Pacific, amp } ed With IDOlS 1 38o the western gales, c 1arg h b ken west coast, from at. d Prevail, every island on tT~ rodel Fuego is densely covere to the extreme po·m t of 10e rra the eastern s.i de of the Cor-by impenetrable forest. n f latitude where a blue sky dillera, over t h e sam e extentht aot the atm' osphere h as been and a :fine climate prove . d lains of Patagonia support drained of its moisture, th~h~n tphe limits of the constant a scanty vegetat '~ ~n. W1t bmul k of the eastern part s of the south-east trade wmd, th\ gnificent forests : the west cont ·nent is ornamented y rna 1 t 32o may be de- 1 4 o south to a · ' coast, however, from lat. h' se as before, aU the vapour scribed as a desert. In t IS c:n~w - clad pinnacles of the has been condensed by the determined by the prevaAndes. In these two areasd, t lands occupy reversed lent winds, the f orest and eset r mountain axis. B et :veen positions with respect ~o the g~~:te band, which is n~Ither their limits a broad mterme s the entire contment. desert nor woodl an d ' st retch.e s acrofs La Plata are m. e1 u d e d Central Chile and the Provmcets c~ast about four degrees in this di.V I·S ·I On. On the wehs e trade' wind loses I· ts r egu-th of the equator, where t. . d' lly fall the desert sou t f ram peno 1ca ' f larity, and heavy torren s o Ca e Blanco the character o oast of Peru assumes near p il d on the shores of cl xuriance so celebrated at Guayaqu an u . t Panama. . .11 erhaps appear a suffie1en M ter these facts, It Wl p ding to the South . t tate that accor . answer to the question, ? s the climate of Banda O~Iental1 American type of vegetatiOn, es But this reasonmg, is too dry for the growth of trde d. to a general statement d t not be exten e per-apprehen ' mus . The Falklands offer a more . l d' other countnes. me u mg t Amcl'ica Encyc. Britan. • Maclaren, ar · ' 1832-3. ABSENCE OF TREES. 55 plexing case even than Maldonado. Situated .under the same latitude with Tierra del Fuego, and only between two and three hundred miles distant from it, possessed of an entirely similar climate, with a geological formation almost identical, with favourable situations, and the same kind of peaty soil, yet these islands can scarcely boast of a plant deserving the title even of a bush ; whilst in Tierra del Fuego, it is impossible to find an acre of land not covered by the densest forest. In this case, both the direction of the heavy gales of wind and of the currents of the sea are favourable to the transport of seeds. Canoes and other works of art, and trunks of trees, drifted from Tierra del Fuego, are frequently thrown on the shores of the Western Island. Hence perhaps it is that there are many plants common to the two countries : but with respect to trees, even some attempts which have been made to transplant them, have failed. During our stay at Maldonado I paid particular attention to the mammalia and birds. Of the latter I procured, within the distance of a morning's walk, no less than eighty species, of which many were exceedingly beautiful-! think even more so than those of Brazil. The other orders were not neglected. Reptiles were numerous, and nine different kinds of snakes were taken. Of the indigenous mammalia, the only one now left of any size, which is common, is the Ce1·vus Campestris. This deer is exceedingly abundant throughout the countries bordering the Plata. It is found in Northern Patagonia as far south as the Rio Negro (lat. 41°); but further southward none were seen by the officers employed in surveying the coast. It appears to prefer a hilly country; I saw very many small herds, containing from five to seven animals each, near the Sierra Ventana, and among the hills north of Maldonado. If a person crawling close along the ground, slowly advances towards a herd, the deer frequently, out of curiosity, approach to reconnoitre him. I have by this means killed, from one spot, three out of |