y free, there being recorded only eleven
species--five saurians, four ophidians, one frog and one toad--but a
more thorough survey of the uninhabited territories of the south may
increase this list. There are no alligators in the streams, and the
tropical north has very few lizards. There are no poisonous snakes in
the country, and, in a region so filled with lakes and rivers as the
rainy south, only two species of batrachians. The insect life of these
strangely associated regions is likewise greatly restricted by adverse
climatic conditions, a considerable part of the northern desert being
absolutely barren of animal and vegetable life, while the climate of
Tierra del Fuego and the southern coast is highly unfavourable to
terrestrial animal life, for which reason comparatively few species
are to be found. Writing of a journey inland from Iquique, Charles
Darwin says (_Journal of Researches, &c._, p. 444): "Excepting the
_Vultur aura_, ... I saw neither bird, quadruped, reptile, nor
insect." Of his entomological collection in Tierra del Fuego, which
was not large, the majority were of Alpine species. Moreover, he did
not find a single species common to that island and Patagonia. These
conditions subsist with but few modifications, if any, from the
Straits northward to the 42nd parallel, the extreme humidity, abnormal
rainfall and dark skies being unfavourable to the development of
insect life, while the Andes interpose an impassable barrier to
migration from the countries of the eastern coast. The only venomous
species to be found in central Chile is that of a spider which
frequents the wheat fields in harvest time.

_Population._--The population of Chile is largely concentrated in the
twelve agricultural provinces between and including Coquimbo and
Concepcion, though the next six provinces to the south, of more recent
general settlement, have received some foreign immigrants, and are
rapidly growing. In the desert provinces the population is limited to
the mining communities, and to the ports and supply stations maintained
for their support and for the transport, smelting and export of their
produce. The province of Atacama has, in addition to its mining
population, a considerable number of agriculturists located in a few
irrigated river valleys, which class is largely increased in the
adjoining province of Coquimbo. The more northern provinces, however,
maintain their po