These Plants, Though
Possessing A Very Close General Resemblance To The English
Species Of The Same Genera, Are Different.
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 excavated.
Small streams of water,
flowing underground, complete the disorganization of the
vegetable matter, and consolidate the whole.
The climate of the southern part of America appears particularly
favourable to the production of peat. In the Falkland
Islands almost every kind of plant, even the coarse grass
which covers the whole surface of the land, becomes converted
into this substance: scarcely any situation checks its
growth; some of the beds are as much as twelve feet thick,
and the lower part becomes so solid when dry, that it will
hardly burn. Although every plant lends its aid, yet in most
parts the Astelia is the most efficient. It is rather a singular
circumstance, as being so very different from what occurs
in Europe, that I nowhere saw moss forming 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 its
production, I believe that in Chiloe (lat. 41 to 42 degs.),
although there is much swampy ground, no well-characterized peat
occurs: but in the Chonos Islands, three degrees farther
southward, we have seen that it is abundant.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 442 of 776
Words from 118425 to 118675
of 208183
