240 A VOYAGE TO Book VIIL 



is, under ten or fifteen paces, partly renders their 

 dexterity ineffectual; but there is very great danger 

 of being entangled when the distance is thirty orforty. 

 The nooses, or halters, are thongs of a cow's hide, cut 

 round the skin, and of a proper breadth. These 

 thongs they twist, and work with-fat, till they are of 

 a proper degree of suppleness ; but so strong, that 

 though when twisted they are not larger than the little 

 finger, yet they hold the wildest bull, when its efforts 

 to escape would break a rope of hemp of much larger 

 dimensions. 



The climate of this city is not essentially diffe- 

 rent from that of the greatest part of Europe. Win- 

 ter is indeed something colder than in the southern 

 provinces of Spain, but milder than those of the 

 northern ; and the summer heats proportionably. In 

 winter the inhabitants seem to be little incommoded 

 b}"- the N. winds, and in summer the heats are mo- 

 derated by the cooling breezes from the S. The 

 heat is however greater in the city than in the adjacent 

 country, occasioned chiefly by thedifferent disposition 

 of the ground, being intersected by various rivets, ' 

 some of which are very large, as the Arauco and 

 the Biobio. The latter of which, at a league above 

 its mouth, is very near four leagues in breadth. It 

 may, however, in summer be forded, but not without 

 danger ; in the winter it is passed in balzas. At the 

 southern banks of the river, the territories of the wild 

 Indians begin, and near the same shore towards that 

 part are the chain of frontier forts, of which a farther 

 account will be given in the sequel. The country of 

 thisjurisdiction consists principallyofextensive plains, 

 the Cordillera being at a considerable distance to the 

 eastward, and the whole space between it and the sea 

 coast, one entire and uniform plain, interrupted only 

 by a few eminences, which are an ornament to the 

 country, and render the perspective of it the more 

 agreeable. 



The 



