A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. 371 



( 'hillaii, embrace nearly a hundred mil.^ of latitude. Th.ugh none of the others are so lofty, 

 thei. 11 the vieinii \ "f tli.. Descabezado. Some are covered with snow to their 



Miiiiinits; but <.tli. i> MM entirely dare ab-)iit tbc crewtH, although tbree or four thounaud feet 

 above tin- lit ..... I' perpetual eoii.Lvlat ion. This peculiarity has induced one or more writers to 

 inter that tin- An<le> of ( 'hile generally arc not as hi^h as the snow-line; when the fact in, that 

 nearlv the \\lu.le <>!' the higher ran^e, to the Bout h ward of the 30th parallel, is covered with snow 

 through the upper third or fourth part of their elevation. Subject an are these summits to 

 strong \\iml> from tho southward, if, by chance, snow in deposited on them during a calm, it 

 is of so lij;bt and dry a nature that the first winds of the morning drive it into the ravines, 

 creating de.-p beds in some places, and, owing to the formation, leaving others entirely denuded, 

 or at most with lines of blackened rock, like radii drawn on a white cloth. More than once we 

 have witnessed the drift over the steep face of San Francisco and the lofty ovals to the southeast 

 of it its peak and the summits remaining black and bare, whilst the bottom of the snow- line 

 was at least eight thousand feet below. 



There is a posada in the tufa region, midway between Quechereguas and Talca, where we 

 halted for an hour. Every step of the road after leaving it was more and more desert-like, until 

 we approached the Lircay, within two leagues of Talca. During the whole day scarcely a mule- 

 train was met. Two small droves of half-starved cattle coming to the northward, and a solitary 

 horseman with face and head muffled from the fierce reflected heat, were the only living crea- 

 tures from the banks of the Claro ; and this absence of animal life tended no little to increase 

 the apparent desolation. Approaching the banks of the Lircay, the soil becomes better. One 

 has got across the tufa stratum, and the first evidence of it is in the greater numbers and luxu- 

 riance of the espinos. Thence there are more passers. One meets venders of fruits and vege- 

 tables, with hide panniers, going or returning between the town and the cultivated tongue of 

 land between the Lircay and Claro; and a new specimen of the ox-cart, whose proportions have 

 been reduced much below those last mentioned. Clumsiness and weight are here compressed 

 in all their perfection, lest the poor oxen should not have enough to drag. The prongs of 

 a tongue not unlike a tuning-fork in shape, and some five inches in diameter, are fitted into 

 the axle, and with it serve to support a rough flooring and sides of sticks laced over them. A 

 bit of hide is their only head or tail board. They are from seven to eight feet long in the body, 

 have wheels two feet across, and their sides are three or three and a half feet high above the 

 axle. Many of them were being loaded with rounded stones at the Lircay ford, to be used in 

 paving the streets of the city ; and others toddled along with full cargoes, on top of which the 

 drivers reclined in the full enjoyment of indolence. 



A league S.W. of the ford the Lircay falls into the Claro, the course of the latter remain- 

 ing unchanged by the additional volume. Across the stream (Lircay) there is no variation in 

 the aspect of the land ; at the distance of a few hundred yards it becomes as barren as that to 

 the northward, and thus the approach to the city is by no means prepossessing, or at least it is 

 not so at this season of the year. The first houses are at two miles from the principal popula- 

 tion, and less than a mile to the E.S.E. of the Claro. Talca is five miles from the ford. 

 Owing to the cultivation, perhaps, it can scarcely be considered to have any northern suburbs, 

 and one at once enters the city on that side by a pretty alameda. Five minutes' ride enables 

 you to reach the posada near the plaza and its centre at the same time. 



The base of the Andes is more than twenty-five miles distant from the city. Its higher 

 peaks, the Descabezado, Longavi, Cerro Azul, and Chilian, as well as parts of the ranges on 

 each side of them, are covered with snow to within 9,000 feet of the plain, and from one third 

 to one half of their heights from the summits downward. I am not aware that the height of the 

 Descabezado has ever been measured ; but comparing it with other elevations known to me, I 

 should think it under rather than over 14,500 feet. Owing to the increased amount of moisture 

 in the air, and to the fact that the atmosphere during the day was constantly loaded with fine 

 sand driven along by the prevailing S.S.W. wind, the different ranges composing the chain 



