DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 26 



This, from its nature, cannot be permanent. Every freshet changes the channels, 



and thus a great obstacle is interposed f<. tin- erection of any but extensive and costly bridges to 

 rve ((.iaiiiuuicalii.il between tin- north and Mouth improvements which the scarcity of 

 stiitahle materials and the revenue of a young country M.-aicely authorize it to undertake. 

 ( nlv >ne Much bridge has as yet been, erected that across the Maypu at six leagues from the 

 capital, and where a natural configuration of the shores favored the undertaking. Conse- 

 quently, there are often days when travel to the south is wholly interrupted by streams 

 ordinarily having only the volume of brooks, and even the highway between Santiago and Val- 

 paraiso becomes impassable. 



The Mataquito, formed by the union of the Lontue and Teno, empties into the ocean in lati- 

 tude 34 48'. Its longest tributary the Lontue takes its rise about the centre of the Andes, 

 and near Cerro del Medio, a snow-covered mountain, midway between a line joining the 

 Planchon, Cerro Azul, and Cerro Nevado of Chilian, and the point occupied by the Descabe- 

 zado. Cerro del Medio is on the dividing line of waters here, two leagues to the eastward of 

 that which would pass over the crests mentioned. Passing through valley Grande, the stream 

 descends almost parallel to the sources supplying Lake Mondaca, with whose surplus water it 

 unites to the westward, and the two form the principal volume of the Lontue. Two leagues 

 westward of Curico, and near the western limit of the plain, the Teno, a much smaller stream 

 from the northeast, unites with it, the two being called, from thence to the ocean, the Mataquito. 

 Where the last penetrates the Central Cordilleras their height exceeds 1,000 feet, with hills to 

 the north and south of more than treble that altitude. In comparison with the rivers men- 

 tioned, the course of the Mataquito is quite straight, and conforms to the resultant of the two 

 inclinations of the plain. From the source of the Lontue, by the windings to the sea, the 

 distance exceeds forty leagues. Some years ago it was proposed to open a canal between this 

 river and the Maule, so as to throw its whole volume into the latter stream, in the hope that 

 its channel might be deepened and the bar across its mouth be broken down. But wiser coun- 

 sels prevailed, and whenever journeying to Talca, one still crosses its principal arm over a lasso 

 bridge. 



The Kapel informed from the waters of the Tinguiririca and Cachapual, both streams of con- 

 siderable volume, whose sources are at very great elevations. Those of the former stream 

 have their origin in the melting snows about the extinct volcano of San Fernando, and flow 

 nearly west to the vicinity of the town of that name, where, after penetrating a range of hills 

 belonging to the Central cordilleras, the stream is deflected to tbe northward and unites with 

 the Cacbapual. This last takes its rise on the eastern slope of the Cruz de Piedra (stone cross) 

 group, a part of the culminating line of the Andes, here more than 17,000 feet high. De- 

 scending rapidly through a transversal ravine whose direction is somewhat north of west, and 

 which terminates at the foot of the mountains, it thence turns northwest as far as Rancagua ; 

 next southwest by west, to a point formed by a prolongation of tbe central chain ; and, having 

 divided the latter, passes to the ocean in a nearly northwest line. Its origin is about latitude 

 34 30', longitude 69 44' ; its mouth, latitude 33 53', longitude 71 51'; between which points 

 its sinuosities measure 155 miles, with an average fall during the last hundred rather exceeding 

 twenty-six feet per mile. At its entrance on the plain of Rancagua it divides into two princi- 

 pal arms, enclosing an island above the village of Peumo, which is above thirty miles in length. 

 This is entirely composed of alluvium, and is noted for its fertility, as indeed is every part of 

 both provinces irrigated by these streams. 



Tbe Maypu originates at an elevation of more than 11,000 feet above tbe Pacific in a porte- 

 zuelo or depression between the extinct volcano of the same name and the Cruz de Piedra range. 

 Popular opinion located its source in Lake Diamante, which occupies the bottom of a vast basin 

 just to the eastward of the portezuelo, through whose volcanic strata the waters were supposed 

 to filter ; but by a series of levels Sefior Pissis ascertained that the surface of the lake is ac- 

 tually seventy-five feet below the Maypu springs. For the first sixty miles the stream rushes 

 4 



