29« VALDIVIA. j,chap. xiv 



ground. During the ensuing summer the stump throws out long 

 shoots, and sometimes even bears fruit : I was shown one which 

 had produced as many as twenty-three apples, but this was 

 thought very unusual. In the third season the stump is changed 

 (as I have myself seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with 

 fruit. An old man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, " Ne- 

 cesidad es la madre del invencion," by giving an account of the 

 several useful things he manufactured from his apples. After 

 making cider, and likewise wine, he extracted from the refuse a 

 white and finely flavoured spirit ; by another process he procured 

 a sweet treacle, or, as he called it, honey. His children and 

 pigs seemed almost to live, during this season of the year, in his 

 orchard. 



February Wth. — I set out with a guide on a short ride, in 

 which, however, I managed to see singularly little, either of the 

 geology of the country or of its inhabitants. There is not much 

 cleared land near Valdivia : after crossing a river at the distance 

 of a few miles, we entered the forest, and then passed only one 

 miserable hovel, before reaching our sleeping-place for the 

 night. The short difference in latitude, of 150 miles, liEis given 

 a new aspect to the forest, compared with that of Chiloe. This 

 is owing to a slightly different proportion in the kinds of trees. 

 The evergreens do not appear to be quite so numerous ; and the 

 forest in consequence has a brighter lint. As in Chiloe, the lower 

 parts are matted together by canes : here also another kind (re- 

 sembling the bamboo of Brazil and about twenty feet in height) 

 grows in clusters, and ornaments the banks of some of the 

 streams in a very pretty manner. It is with this plant that the 

 Indians make their chuzos, or long tapering spears. Our resting- 

 house was so dirty that I preferred sleeping outside : on these 

 journeys the first night is generally very uncomfortable, because 

 one is not accustomed to the tickling and biting of the fleas. I 

 am sure, in the morning, there was not a space on my legs of 

 the size of a shilling, which had not its little red mark where 

 the flea had feasted. 



\2th. — We continued to ride through the uncleared forest ; 

 only occasionally meeting an Indian on horseback, or a troop of 

 fine mules bringing alerce-planks and corn from the southern 

 plains. In the afternoon one of the horses knocked up : we 



