A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY. 341 



iiMdcral'le exti-nl , and are HJ>|>I T the- incoini-s their products afford, O8 Well as for 



summer residence-,, when fashion commands it votaries to leave tin- capital. 



There an- i.-daled, al.rupt, ami ni --d hillH scattered all over tin- )><>ttom of the basin. From 

 a miniature base s-.metii!. rear a l-.fly j.i-ak I. .war-Is the skies ; at other* they cover miles 



with their graoefilllj Carving outlines; and the distance the An-h-and western chain 



having sensihly \sidened a the Southern rim lias been approached, the only perceptible bn ak 

 in it.s mountain walls is \\heiv the Mayjm with it.- inm-aHcd volume of waters from the Mapo- 

 cho and Anu-'stiiia has l.ui -st a passage tin oiigh the Central Cordillera. There is no diminu- 

 tion of the glorious ^randeni <>!' the Anle.s, but rather accessions to it in the extinct volcanoes of 

 Tiipun^ato and Sail Jose, which arc invisible to those residing immediately under the chain at 

 Santiago. 



I . avin^ the main road, twelve or thirteen leagues from the city, a less frequented one strikes 

 across limpid mountain streams running northwestwardly among spurs that spring from the 

 western mountain ranges. Here the face of the country is most beautiful. One finds a rich 

 alluvial soil, covered with profuse vegetation, now in its greatest luxuriance; roads shaded lor 

 iiiik-s on either side with Lombardy poplars ; orchards, vineyards, bright flowers, and sparkling 

 waters all that nature can contribute to charm the sight! Would that man and his creations 

 illicit do justice to them; or, at least, that his productions were not in such marked contrast! 

 Pursuing the latter road something more than half a score of miles, the native woods become 

 dense, and we find ourselves surrounded by great trees covered with the thickest foliage, their 

 branches bent towards the earth, so as to render the forest almost impenetrable. Nearly all of 

 them were in flower ; but the most attractive was the Patagua, the contrast of whose delicate 

 Avhite bell with the almost olive-color of its evergreen leaves being both striking and graceful. 

 This is the Banyan tree of Chile; for wherever its branches touch the earth they take root, and 

 new plants spring upwards, thus forming myriads of natural vegetable arches. 



A rivulet of clear water from the westward is the first intimation one has of a concealed 

 gem in this mountain glen. The hills have gradually approached each other, and on both 

 sides are from three thousand to six thousand feet away over head ; whilst to the east and 

 west, mountains of scarcely less elevation close it in. In the early morning light the Cereus 

 quisco is seen on their grey summits, flinging its arms against the sky; and farther down their 

 steep sides the ravines are filled with vegetation of various hues contrasts relieving an oth- 

 erwise arid aspect, unpleasant for the eye to dwell long upon. Crossing a slightly elevated 

 promontory, there is spread out below, in pristine placidity, the mountain lake of Aculeo a 

 type of tranquillity. At early hours of the morning there is not a breath of air to ruffle its 

 pi dished ice-formed waters; and they are disturbed only by wild fowl, whose ancestors alone 

 possessed it. Before us, to the south and east, and also in one little spot to the westward, the 

 bases of the hills slope off into plains, in some places perhaps a mile or more in width ; but at 

 every other point they descend precipitously, forming an elliptic, or, more properly speaking, 

 an hour-glass shaped basin, two leagues in length by one in width at the water surface. 

 Within the oblong bowl thus formed the storms of winter deposit rains, and melted snows 

 trickle from the mountain sides. A part of this water finds outlet in the rivulet last mentioned, 

 until the heats of summer reduce the level of the lake too low for further exit. Its greatest 

 length is from east to west. Two promontories opposite each other divide it into basins of 

 nearly equal superficial extent, connected by a short strait not above half a mile across. The 



I ii liasin has a chain of islets from a few yards to an acre or two in extent, which are the 

 haunts of vari-colored water-fowl. 



The geological formation differs on the two sides of the lake. One is sicnitic, the other 

 porphyritic, as are the hills northward of Santiago. As the disintegrated materials have been 

 washed down during rains, the bed of the lake has tilled, and there are now dead trees thirty or 

 forty feet within the margin thus extended l>y the displacing materials. Was such the cause, or 

 is the climate changing, and the retrogression of the shore-line due to an annually increasing 



