DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 1 7 



reasonably inferred that tin- deficiency was supplied by springs at the bottom. The water wa 

 quite rli-iir. ahoimded \\ith lino fish, and ui|iiatic birds of many varieties, whose nests were 

 t.i I..- found on islands which floated .,n its surface. Tin-so last appear to hare been formed by 

 the matting together of multitudes of dead plants, which Kuhse<|Uently floated, and on whose 

 sin-face others took root as soil was formed by natural decay, until even trees of medium size 

 found foothold. The thickness of the sustaining mass was from four to six feet, of which 

 the greater portion was submerged.* When a strong wind arose, it was no little curious to 

 witness what one supposed to be terra firma, with its trees and browsing cattle, perhaps, go 

 floating to the other side of the lake. Fossil shells arc found in numbers on the Cerro de 

 Borbollon, which bounds the eastern shore ; and in cutting the drain mentioned, the bones of 

 two Mastodons were disinterred at a distance of two hundred yards within the original margin 

 of the water, and twenty feet below its surface. Part of a femur, a broken lower jaw, and other 

 teeth, were presented tome by Richard Price, Esq., an intelligent English gentleman long 

 resident in Chile. They have been minutely figured and described in an accompanying report 

 from Dr. Wyman, and it is not a little remarkable that these relics, accidentally obtained 

 from within a few feet of each other, should completely sustain the assertion of Cuvier, that 

 two species of this huge animal formerly existed in South America. On the neighboring Cerro 

 de las Incas exist the remains of a rude temple or fortress, erected by the Promaucaes, the tribe 

 whose continued hostility drove Almagro from the country. 



Cauquenes, a smaller though similar deposite of water, in the same province, is within the 

 hacienda of the Requinua, three or four leagues to the eastward of the high road to the 

 south, and about an equal distance south of the river Cachapual. It is not more than a mile 

 in length, and is the probable source of the river Claro, a tributary of the Cachapual, if not 

 also of the Cauquenes. The authority for this, and other information respecting it, is given 

 in Chapter XV. Like Taguatagua, great numbers offish and birds may be obtained from it. 



Cahuil, Boyecura, and Bichuquen, in the western part of the province, are called lakes by 

 M. Gay ; but they are, more properly, estuaries. 



Almost every traveller who has felt sufficient interest to make the journey from its port to 

 the capital of Chile, has been tempted to extend his ride as far as Aculeo, a picturesque lake, 

 13 leagues to the S.S.W. of Santiago, and within the Central Cordilleras. It is in the form of 

 an hour-glass, extending six miles from east to west, and four across the broadest portions, 

 from north to south, though scarcely more than half a mile between the promontories which 

 give it its peculiar shape. From the disintegrated materials constantly washing down the sides 

 of the mountains that surround it, the level of its water is gradually rising. During the winter, 

 and until summer evaporations reduce it below the outlet, the surplus flows by a short stream 

 to the Angostura, a tributary of the Maypu. Further account of it will be found in Chapter 

 XIV. 



The other deposites of water, in the province of Santiago, are the salt lakes of Bucalemu, to 

 the westward of Aculeo, and separated from the sea only by sand-hills ; Batuco, of considerable 

 superficial extent in winter, though often a mere marsh in summer, between the Colina 

 and Chacabuco creeks ; and in the Andes, the small lakes in which the Mapocho and Yeso 

 originate. The last, called Piuquenes, from the number of these birds (Bernida mdanopterd) 

 that frequent it, is at an elevation of 8,500 feet above the sea-level. 



Aconcagua has but one lake, and that is situated in a lofty spot of the Andes, so distant 

 from the usually travelled road to Mendoza, that few persons are willing to add to the hard- 

 ships of their journey by a visit to it. The Laguna del Iiica is in latitude 32 50 7 , longitude 

 69 42', within a dike of oval form, nearly surrounded by lofty and precipitous declivities, 

 about 8,000 feet above the ocean. It is nearly two miles in its greatest diameter, and appar- 

 ently of such great depth that the arrieros declare it has no bottom. Mr. Peter Schmidtmeyer, 



* Annales des Sciences Naturellee, Tom. 



