CHAPTER XVI
CHILE, 1901–1902
My journey to Chile had three main objects. The first was to gain some idea of the peculiar conditions which make the fauna and flora of Chile so interesting. The second was to collect as many as possible of the lepidoptera, which have never been studied on the spot by any competent entomologist. Thirdly, I wished to learn something about the many beautiful plants of Chile which we grow in gardens and of whose habitat we know but little, and to introduce to cultivation the terrestrial orchids which are such a marked feature in the flora of the country.
I was fairly successful in all these objects, and brought back a collection of plants which have been worked out at Kew by Mr. T.A. Sprague, Mr. Rolfe and myself.
Though many good naturalists have travelled in Chile,yet for the most part their explorations have been confined to the settled parts of the country. There is a large region in what was formerly called Araucania which, having only lately become open to travellers, has remained comparatively unknown to European naturalists, though it has now been fairly well explored by the numerous surveyors who have been employed by the Chilean and Argentine Governments to settle the boundary dispute, which at the time of my visit had become a very burning question. Among these Señor Moreno on the Argentine side, and Dr. Hans Stiffen on the Chilean side, are by far the most distinguished.
I need not enumerate the various authors who have written on the natural history of Chile. The names of Gay, Philippi, Cunningham, Darwin and Ball are all well known. The two former have described the natural history of the interior of the country, whilst our countrymen have studied the coast in a way which I cannot hope to equal, as it is evident that three months in such a country as Chile would by no means justify me in form¬ ing any very decided opinions about the causes which have produced such a remarkable fauna and flora. So far as Darwin saw the country, he describes it in a manner which makes it difficult to add anything of importance to what he wrote. But he saw little of the southern mountains, which in his time were almost unknown to the Chileans themselves. I shall therefore pass over the regions which he so well described, and confine my remarks principally to the route between Mulchen and Puerto Montt, which has never been described by any scientific traveller except in part by Señor Moreno.
I left England in November, 1901, and arrived at Buenos Ayres on December and, when the political relations between Chile and Argentina were in a condition which almost led to war, and which delayed me considerably in making a start for the southern frontier. I had engaged the assistance of a Swedish engineer, Señor Arneberg, but on arriving in Chile I was advised that it might be unwise to travel with a man who had been employed by the Argentine Government as surveyor. After a
months delay in Chile I was fortunate in obtaining the assistance of
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