Mr. Darwin, to whom we are indebted for so much valuable information concerning the natural history of various portions of the world, in his notes on Tierra del Fuego, observes: "Beetles occur in very small numbers; it was long before I could believe that a country as large as Scotland, covered with vegetable productions and with a variety of stations, could be so unproductive. The few which I found were alpine species of _Harpalidae_ and _Heteromera_, living beneath stones. The vegetable-feeding _Chrysomelidae_, so eminently characteristic of the tropics, are here almost entirely absent. I saw very few flies, butterflies, or bees, and no crickets or Orthoptera. In the pools of water I found but few aquatic beetles. I have already contrasted the climate as well as the general appearance of Tierra del Fuego with that of Patagonia; and the difference is strongly exemplified in the entomology. I do not believe they have one species in common; certainly the general character of the insects is widely dissimilar[17]." Now, it is impossible to read this account without being at once struck with two primary considerations: first, that there must exist some great peculiarity (apart from climate) in a region the fauna of which is thus singularly constituted; and, secondly, that latitude (however important it may be in a comprehensive point of view) must exercise in this case a very secondary influence, to allow of localities separated only by the Straits of Magellan to present differences thus extraordinary.