J83-I.] THE BELL OF QUILLOTA. 255 



Cordillera, a succession of level basins, generally openino- into 

 each other by narrow passages, extend far to the southward : in 

 tliese, the principal towns are situated, as San Felipe, Santiago, 

 San Fernando. These basins or plains, together with the trans- 

 verse flat valleys (like that of Quillota) which connect tliem with 

 the coast, I have no doubt are the bottoms of ancient inlets and 

 deep bays, such as at the present day intersect every part of 

 Tierra del Fuego and the western coast. Chile must formerly 

 have resembled the latter country in the configuration of its land 

 and water. The resemblance was occasionally sliown strikingly 

 when a level fog-bank covered, as with a mantle, all the lower 

 parts of the country: the white vapour curling into the ravines, 

 beautifully represented little coves and bays ; and here and there 

 a solitary hillock peeping up, showed that it had formerly stood 

 there as an islet. The contrast of these flat valleys and basins 

 with the irregular mountains, gave the scenery a character which 

 to me was new and very interestino-. 



From the natural slope to seaward of these plains, they are very 

 easily irrigated, and in consequence singularly fertile. Without 

 this process the land would produce scarcely anything, for during 

 the whole summer the sky is cloudless. The mountains and hills 

 are dotted over with bushes and low trees, and exceptinf»- these 

 the vegetation is very scanty. Each landowner in the valley 

 possesses a certain portion of hill-country, where his half-wild 

 cattle, in considerable numbers, manage to find sufficient pasture. 

 Once every year there is a grand " rodeo," when all the cattle 

 are driven down, counted, and marked, and a certain number 

 separated to be fattened in the irrigated fields. Wheat is exten- 

 sively cultivated, and a good deal of Indian corn : a kind of bean 

 is, however, the staple article of food for the common labourers. 

 The orchards produce an overflowing abundance of peaches, figs, 

 and grapes. With all these advantages, the inhabitants of tlie 

 country ought to be much more prosperous than they are. 



^ I6th. — The mayor-domo of the Hacienda was good enough to 

 give me a guide and fresh horses ; and in the morning we set out 

 to ascend the Campana, or Bell Mountain, which is 6400 feet 

 high. The paths were very bad, but both the geology and scenery 

 amply repaid the trouble. We reached, by the evening, a spring 

 called the Agiia del Guanaco, which is situated at a o-reat hei"-ht. 

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