Early assessments of Chile's freshwater fish biodiversity

Carl Eigenmann is considered one of the major people in identifying the native fishes of Chile. Many of the native fishes here have his name in the designation. This, however, is the first sentence about his initial trip to Chile in 1919, as written in his biography:

In February, 1919, Eigenmann went south to Chile where he was disappointed at the paucity of the fresh-water fish fauna of only 30 odd species belonging to 10 families. On the first of June, 1919, he returned [to the US]. As usual he brought back with him a large and varied material the study of which resulted in important publications. According to Myers “it was on this trip that the strain of the great altitudes broke the indomitable strength of Eigenmann, once before weakened by fever in Colombia and it is from this time that we must mark his decline in health.”

The following summary about the Chilean ichthyofauna is also pithy and spot-on:

 On the Pacific slope between Panama and southern Chile there are two main faunas. That of Chile belonging to the south temperate Patagonian fauna is poor in species.

According to recent sources, Chile has only 44 native species, and the majority of them are located in the southern half of the country.