164 CENTRAL CHILE. i^chap. xii. 



perature have scarcely any mineral taste. After the great earth- 

 quake of 1822 the springs ceased, and the water did not return 

 for nearly a year. They were also much affected by the earth- 

 quake of 1835; the temperature being suddenly changed from 

 118^ to 92°.* It seems probable that mineral waters rising deep 

 from the bowels of the earth, would always be more deranged by 

 subterranean disturbances than those nearer the surface. Tiie 

 man who had charge of the baths, assured me that in summer the 

 water is hotter and more plentiful than in winter. The former 

 circumstance I should have expected, from the less mixture, 

 during the dry season, of cold water ; but the latter statement 

 appears very strange and contradictory. The periodical increase 

 during the summer, when rain never falls, can, I think, only be 

 accounted for by the melting of the snow : yet the mountains 

 which are covered by snow during that season, are three or four 

 leagues distant from the springs. I have no reason to doubt the 

 accuracy of my informer, who, having lived on the spot for 

 several years, ought to be well acquainted with the circumstance, 

 — which, if true, certainly is very curious : for, we must suppose 

 that the snow-water, being conducted through porous strata to 

 the regions of heat, is again thrown up to the surface by the line 

 of dislocated and injected rocks at Cauquenes ; and the regularity 

 of the phenomenon would seem to indicate, that in this district 

 heated rock occurred at a depth not very great. 



One day t rode up the valley to the farthest inhabited spot. 

 Shortly above that point, the Cachapual divides into two deep 

 tremendous ravines, which penetrate directly into the great range. 

 I scrambled up a peaked mountain, probably more than six thou- 

 sand feet high. Here, as indeed everywhere else, seems of the 

 highest interest presented themselves. It was by one of these 

 ravines, that Pincheira entered Chile and ravaged the neighbour- 

 ing country. This is the same man whose attack on an estancia 

 at the Kio Negro I have described. He was a renegade half- 

 cast Spaniard, who collected a great body of Indians together 

 and established himself by a stream in the Pampas, wliich place 

 none of the forces sent after him could ever discover. From this 

 point he used to sally forth, and crossing the Cordillera by passes 

 hitherto unattempted, he ravaged the farm-houses and drove the 



* Caldcleu{,'h, in Philosoph. Tranract. for 183r.. 



