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.