370 A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. 



long spurs clanking at every step like so many chains on the hard ground. The posada 

 was really a good one; its rooms clean, and the hosts actually able to supply any reasonable 

 want cheerfully, and at very small cost. No little comfort was it to obtain a wash-hand basin 

 and clean water, instead of the greasy dish in which the "casuela" had been served the night 

 before, and muddy water from an acequia. 



March 29. Nearly the whole of the fifteen leagues remaining to be travelled being over a 

 road wholly unprotected from the rays of the sun, Nor Nicolas was desirous to accomplish half 

 of it before breakfast, and was knocking at my door by daylight, impatient to be off. A simi- 

 lar spirit seemed to actuate all my neighbors of the adjoining rooms, and the bustle was even 

 greater than on the previous evening. We were the last to move, the sun just peeping over 

 the Andes as we started. 



For more than a mile, a tall row of poplars bounds both sides of the road. Beyond them 

 the fields teem with the most luxuriant vegetation, exhibiting a fertility of soil fully compar- 

 able with the best districts between the Mapocho and Cachapual. A heavy dew, deposited during 

 the night, thoroughly laid the deep dust of the road ; and glittering drops still hung from out- 

 spread branches, as though a recent shower had passed over the avenue. Within a league is 

 Villa Molina, a clean little town, with nearly 2,000 inhabitants, built along the main road for 

 half a mile. It has only one indifferent-looking church. A broken plain that extends to 

 Talca, and which is almost utterly barren, commences at a very short distance south of the town. 

 Dwarf espinos, and occasional clusters of peumos in the ravines, are the only growth. Nor 

 can a large portion of it ever be easily reclaimed, the rolling nature of its surface rendering 

 irrigation impossible, except at enormous expense. There is a change observable in the western 

 range of mountains, too. They have become little more than bleak and arid hills, with scarcely 

 a visible shrub upon them. Where the river Claro crosses the plain diagonally, the latter may 

 be forty miles wide, with a narrow cultivated strip on either bank of the stream ; but from 

 these to the limit of vision there is the same aspect of desolation. In this region a stratum of 

 tosca (tufa), immediately below the surface, prevents the penetration of water or roots of plants 

 that strike deeply, and scarcely anything grows. As the distance of this stratum from the 

 surface varies from six inches to three feet, and it lies nearly parallel with it, they tell me that 

 portions are at times cultivated in wheat, which of necessity depends on natural irrigation ; 

 but I saw no stubble for leagues, nor any other evidence of the husbandman's labors. The 

 material mentioned is of two colors one that of slate, the other a greyish white. Its specific 

 gravity is very little greater than that of pine wood, and it is so soft that it may be readily 

 chopped into any form with a stout knife. On the latter account, and because of its abundance 

 and durability, it is extensively used for fencing, the faces being trimmed smooth when the 

 walls are of the required height. 



Soon after passing through Villa Molina we encountered a straggling train of women and 

 children, the wives and offspring of a battalion of Cazadores who had served in the late revolu- 

 tionary struggle. They were now on their way to Curico, whose vicinity was not considered as 

 tranquil as lovers of order desired. Some of the women were mounted, others on foot, and 

 nearly all slovenly and dirty, as camp followers usually are. A short distance in their rear 

 came burden mules with the officers' luggage ; these were closely followed by troops ; and two or 

 three ladies, surrounded by officers, brought up the rear of the column. We passed each other 

 in crossing the limpid waters of the Claro,- here a narrow stream not above twenty yards wide, 

 between steep and high banks. 



By this time the mists of the morning had been dissipated, the southerly wind had com- 

 menced, and the atmosphere was extremely serene, exhibiting the mountains with great dis- 

 tinctness. Among the Andes, composed of many separate ranges, the Descabezado* (truncated) 

 is in the fourth, and is the highest visible from this plain. To the northward, Cauquenes is quite 

 clear; thence, following along the most elevated line, Peteroa, Descabezado, Cerro Azul, and 



* Literally, headless. 



