Quate mary vegetation, climate and glaciation of the Archipielago Chiloeare interp reted from five fossil pollen sequences, chronologically controlled by 35 radiocarbon dates. The earliest one from Punta Tenten, representing open Subantarctic-North Patagonian Rain Forest and Magellanic Moorland during a cold interstade is dated >49,700 yr B.P. The late-glacial and Holocene sequences at Mayol, Estero Huitanque, Dichan, and Puchilco postdate recession of the Castro lobe of the Chiloe piedmont glacier before 14,350 yr B.P. These sites at 14,350-12,000 yr B.P., at first, reflect cold, humid Subantarctic Parkland, followed by warming and forest development; later, at 1 2,000-10,000 yr B,P. cooling is inferred by changing taxa belonging to North Patagonian Rain Forest communities. Holocene sequences, indicating moderated conditions with Valdivian-type forest and later cooling with North Patagonian-type, are of vegetation considerably disturbed by Paleoindian burning and by European settlement. Holocene sites consistently contain a tephra layer variously dated between 9,760 and 8,820 yr B.P. Data from the late-glacial of this study and from the full-glacial studied previously at Dalcahue show two glacial maxima and final multistep wastage of the Castro robe. The first step follows a maximum of the ice, dated at close 21,000 yr B.P., during late Llanquihue glaciation; a second step follows another maximum dated at between 14,700 and 14,350 yr B.P., and a third step is implied from pollen data after 12,000 yr B. P. Each step, following long-term cooling on a millennial time scale, is recognized in other geographic regions in the polar hemispheres and may be globally imprinted.