1835.] VALDIVIA. 



297 



showed its snowy summit. I hope it will be long before I fom-e*. 

 this farewell view of the magnificent Cordillera fronting Chiloe. 

 At night we bivouacked under a cloudless sky, and the next 

 morning reached S. Carlos. We arrived on the right day, for 

 before evening heavy rain commenced. 



February 4th. Sailed from Chiloe. During the last week 1 

 made several short excursions. One was to examine a great bed 

 of now-existing shells, elevated 350 feet above the level of the 

 sea : from among these shells, large forest-trees were growing. 

 Another ride was to P. Huechucucuy. I had with me a guide 

 who knew the country far too well ; for he would pertinaciously 

 tell me endless Indian names for every little point, rivulet, and 

 creek. In the same manner as in Tierra del Fuego, the Indian 

 language appears singularly well adapted for attaching names to 

 the most trivial features of the land. I believe every one was 

 glad to say farewell to Chiloe ; yet if we could forget the gloom 

 and ceaseless rain of winter, Chiloe might pass for a charming 

 island. There is also something very attractive in the simplicity 

 and humble politeness of the poor inhabitants. 



TTe steered northward along shore, but owing to thick weather 

 did not reach Valdivia till the night of the 8th. The next 

 morning the boat proceeded to the town, which is distant about 

 ten miles. We followed the course of the river, occasionally 

 passing a few hovels, and patches of ground cleared out of the 

 otherwise unbroken forest ; and sometimes meeting a canoe with 

 an Indian family. The town is situated on the low banks of the 

 stream, and is so completely buried in a wood of apple-trees that 

 the streets are merely paths in an orchard. I have never seen 

 any country, where apple-trees appeared to thrive so well as in 

 this damp part of South America : on the borders of the roads 

 there were many young trees evidently self-sown. In Chiloe 

 the inhabitants possess a marvellously short method of making 

 an orchard. At the lower part of almost every branch, small' 

 conical, brown, wrinkled points project : these are always ready 

 to change into roots, as may sometimes be seen, where any mud 

 has been accidentally splashed against the tree. A branch as 

 thick as a man's thigh is chosen in the early spring, and is cut 

 off just beneath a group of these points ; all the smaller branches 

 are lopped off, and it is then placed about two feet deep in the 



