A CHILIAN COUNTRY-GENTLEMAN. 171 



judge of a region yet imperfectly surveyed, the case 

 is quite different in Southern ChiH, below the parallel 

 of 40°. From near Valdivia a lofty coast range, cut 

 through by only one deep and narrow valley, extends 

 southward to the strait, only a few miles wide, that 

 divides the island of Chiloe from the mainland, and is 

 evidently prolonged to the southward in the high land 

 that fringes the western flank of that large island. A 

 moderate rise of the sea-level w^ould submerge the 

 country between Puerto Montt and the Rio de San 

 Pedro, and produce another island very similar in 

 form and dimensions to that of Chiloe. 



Our lumbermg carriage came to a halt at the place 

 where the road crosses a stream — the Rio Claro — 

 which drains some part of the outer range and soon 

 falls into the Cachapoal. Close at hand was a plain 

 building with numerous dependencies, which turned 

 out to be the residence of Don Olegario Soto, the 

 chief proprietor of this part of the country. I pro- 

 ceeded at once to deliver a letter to this gentleman, 

 whose property extends along the valley for a distance 

 of thirty or forty miles into the heart of the Cordillera. 

 My object was to ascertain the possibility of making 

 an excursion into the interior of the great range, and 

 to obtain such assistance as the proprietor might 

 afford. The house, so far as I saw, was rustic in 

 character, and my first impression of its owner was 

 that the same epithet might serve as his description. 

 There was a complete absence of the conventional 

 and perfectly hollow phrases which form the staple of 

 Castilian courtesy. But first impressions are pro- 

 verbially misleading. On my making some obviously 



