IiKSnill'TIVE (;i:o(;KAl'HY. 21 



coast, and in tin- immediate' vicinity of tin- hijjh road, very little in known respecting it; 

 ti.r, although tin- Indians rai^- cattle, cultivate field*, and dwell in houses far better than 

 many >f tin- h-wcr class of Chilenos possess, their antipathy to all of Spanish descent is unmiti- 

 i ,md the \\hitc man is not p< -i mined to come among them. Traveller* who pass between 

 t '..nccpcinn and Valdivia state that the plains on its banks, at five leagues from the month, 

 are highly fertile and exceedingly beautiful. Here itH breadth does not exceed 150 yards, 

 though the depth is sufficient for steamboat navigation, if a bar existing across its exposed 

 mouth, and the Indians, would permit the entrance of such vessels to the heart of their country. 

 Mr. Miers says there is no obstruction to the entrance of ships of the largest class. 



The Imperial drains nearly all the sub-Andine valley between latitude 38 06' and the Tol- 

 ten; but, though many parties of Spaniards have visited its banks, they have been too con- 

 stantly handed by the Araucanians to think of geography, and even less is known of it than of 

 the latter. The Cauten, a tributary from the loftier Andes, joins the united volume of the 

 north and northeast streams in latitude 38 48', whence the whole volume flows, in a ser- 

 pentine course, due west to the ocean. Several smaller streams empty into it between the 

 confluence of the Cauten and the Pacific, at the junction of one of which, Las Daman, the early 

 invaders founded the city of Imperial. Many a desperate encounter occurred in its vicinity; 

 time after time was it burned, and now scarce a vestige remains. Here, at four leagues from 

 the sea, there is water enough quite close to the shore for vessels of considerable tonnage. 

 The breadth of the river is more than four hundred yards, and it has a scarcely perceptible 

 current; indeed, the tide is said to ebb and flow more than twenty miles higher. Eight miles 

 below, it divides into two branches, one, and the broader, continuing in a southwest direction ; 

 the other, a deeper though narrow current, turning to the northwest, empties into the sea 

 amid scarped rocks. As the prevailing wind on the coast blows directly into the mouth of 

 the larger volume, the sea heaps a bar of sand across it. All the country in the vicinity of the 

 roads is described as fertile, and capable of producing wheat, vegetables, and fruits in profusion. 



The Biobio is, beyond question, the great river of Chile. No less than two considerable 

 lakes, which receive the melted snows of very extensive basins within the Andes, and also a 

 large number of tributaries draining western ravines of the same chain and more than 600 

 square miles of the eastern slope of the Central Cordilleras, unite to form it. At their junction, 

 the Laja, Duqueco, and Bergara, its three principal affluents, have each a breadth of from 400 

 to 500 yards, with an average depth exceeding a foot. Of the three, the first is best known, its 

 cascade having made it quite notable. Its origin is in a lake of the same name, at the foot of the 

 volcano of Antuco, this lake receiving a part of its waters from the Cordilleras of Pichachen, 

 eight miles further east, although Antuco, Sierra Belluda, and a range to the northward, form 

 the culminating points of the Andes. Within the Andes, the Laja flows in a deep ravine, 

 which it has worn through beds of sand and volcanic conglomerates ; but on arriving near the 

 centre of the plain, its stream is almost at the level of the latter, the immediate bed being also 

 composed of like materials. The falls are at sixteen miles to the southeast of Yumbel, and not 

 far from half- way across the great plain. No less than six different strata are visible in the gorge 

 between the superficial bed and the base of the fall, their faces forming a vertical escarpment 

 some sixty feet high, by 1,200 to 1,300 feet wide. Though on a much smaller scale, the 

 water pours in a double fall, not unlike Niagara. Prof. Doineyko says that the vapor of water 

 which moistens and separates the porous and friable underlying strata, is here producing an 

 analogous effect to that of the waters of Niagara, which wear away the schists under the cal- 

 careous strata there ; and the falls of the Laja are receding towards the Andes, precisely as 

 those of Niagara are approaching Lake Erie. The volcano of Antuco, with its smoke and 

 jlame, and the Sierra Belluda, with its glaciers and banks of snow, add no little to the charm 

 of the panoramic view ; but apart from the fact that the picture is probably the most enchanting 

 in all Chile, the spot is more than ordinarily interesting to the student of geology. On the 

 southern branch of the same river, there are also two fine cataracts, highly attractive in them- 



