Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

VEGETATION CLIMATE. 577 the country and hills, from the height of two thousand feet above the sea, to the very verge of the high-water mark, are covered with a perpetual verdure which is remarkably striking, particularly in those places where the glaciers descend into the sea ; the sud- den contrast in such cases presenting to the view a scene as agree- able as it seems to be anomalous. I have myself seen vegetation thriving most luxuriantly, and large woody-stemmed trees of Fuchsia and Veronica* (in England considered and treated as tender plants), in full flower, within a very short distance of the base of a mountain, covered for two-thirds down with snow, and with the temperature at 36°. The Fuchsia certainly was rarely found except in sheltered spots, but not so the V eronica ; for the beaches of the bays on the west side of San Juan Island at Port San Antonio are lined with trees of the latter, growing even in the very wash of the sea. There is no part of the Strait more ex- posed to the wind than this, for it faces the reach to the west of Cape Froward, down Avhich the wind constantly blows, and brings with it a succession of rain, sleet, or snow ; and in the winter months, from April to August, the ground is covered with a layer of snow, from six inches to two or three feet in depth. There must be, therefore, some peculiar quality in the atmos- phere of this otherwise rigorous climate which favours vegetation for if not, these comparatively delicate plants could not live and flourish through the long and severe winters of this region. In the summer, the temperature at night was frequently as low as 29° of Fahrenheit, and yet I never noticed the following morn- ing any blight or injury sustained by these plants, even in the slightest degree. I have occasionally, during the summer, been up the greater part of the night at my observatory, with the internal as well as the external thermometers as low as freezing point, without being particularly warmly clad, and yet not feeling the least cold ; and in the winter, the thermometer, on similar occasions, has been at 24° and 26°, without my suffering the slightest inconvenience. This I attributed at the time to the peculiar stillness of the air, although, within a short distance in the offing and overhead, the wind was high. Whilst upon this subject, there are two facts which may be • The stems of both from six to seven inches in diameter.