eptions to the general scarcity of wood. Among the
introduced kinds may be enumerated poplars, olives, peach, and
other fruit trees: the peaches succeed so well, that they afford
the main supply of firewood to the city of Buenos Ayres. Extremely
level countries, such as the Pampas, seldom appear favourable to
the growth of trees. This may possibly be attributed either to the
force of the winds, or the kind of drainage. In the nature of the
land, however, around Maldonado, no such reason is apparent; the
rocky mountains afford protected situations; enjoying various kinds
of soil; streamlets of water are common at the bottoms of nearly
every valley; and the clayey nature of the earth seems adapted to
retain moisture. It has been inferred, with much probability, that
the presence of woodland is generally determined by the annual
amount of moisture (3/2. Maclaren, article "America" "Encyclopedia
Brittannica."); yet in this province abundant and heavy rain falls
during the winter; and the summer, though dry, is not so in any
excessive degree. (3/3. Azara says "Je crois que la quantite
annuelle des pluies est, dans toutes ces contrees, plus
considerable qu'en Espagne."--Volume 1 page 36.) We see nearly the
whole of Australia covered by lofty trees, yet that country
possesses a far more arid climate. Hence we must look to some other
and unknown cause.

Confining our view to South America, we should certainly be tempted
to believe that trees flourished only under a very humid climate;
for the limit of the forest-land follows, in a most remarkable
manner, that of the damp winds. In the southern part of the
continent, where the western gales, charged with moisture from the
Pacific, prevail, every island on the broken west coast, from
latitude 38 degrees to the extreme point of Tierra del Fuego, is
densely covered by impenetrable forests. On the eastern side of the
Cordillera, over the same extent of latitude, where a blue sky and
a fine climate prove that the atmosphere has been deprived of its
moisture by passing over the mountains, the arid plains of
Patagonia support a most scanty vegetation. In the more northern
parts of the continent, within the limits of the constant
south-eastern trade-wind, the eastern side is ornamented by
magnificent forests; whilst the western coast, from latitude 4
degrees South to latitude 32 degrees South, may be described as a
desert; on this western coast, northward of latitude 4 degrees
South,