A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. 383 



boats left below, to be returned for aft- hy the same united parties. The velocity of the 



water wan not so observable when descending . lut now a difference of elevation amounting to 

 more than a foot in t \\.-nty .r thirty \arU was plainly notable. Both ascending and descending 



tin- wiin I \va> insai iaMy livelier >\ri th.-s,- -;>ots. 



In exuviation ..t Our return, the obliging friend who had furnished the guide for Los Perales 

 nt hoi ses to await us < arly in the morning ; and, as soon as the heat was somewhat mod- 

 rat.-.l, we started for his country n si.h uce near Talca. Seen from the hill above the bodega, 

 ill. '\ !' the Claro, at its junction with the Maule, is about a mile wide, and 'for several 

 iiiiks in a nrt hrast direction scarcely changes its l>n-a<lth. Tin- stream is but a narrow rivulet, 

 \\ith very few native trees near it; and as the banks are steep, and the supply of water limited, 

 no great numher of fruit-trees are cultivated. All the land is evidently under the rude tillage 

 of the country ; though, from the greater admixture of sand in the soil, and the absence of 

 fertilization which lime and other mineral manures afford in the process of irrigation there, it 

 is not so productive as further east, where water for the fields is drawn from the Maule. The 

 range of hills hounding the western side of the valley rises to a height of seven hundred feet. 

 They are umlulat 'MILT, not much broken by ravines, and are covered with moderate-sized tree* 

 to a distance of three or four miles from the river; north of that they are barren. The 

 extremity of the peninsula between the Claro and the Maule, composed to the very base of sand 

 ami water-worn stones, is not more than one hundred and fifty feet higher than the streams. 

 There is very little to add to what has already been said respecting the country between the 

 river and Talca. The barren portion is as uninteresting as possible, its only inhabitants being 

 field-rats (M. longipilis), a few carrion-birds, the traro (Caracara vulgaris), and tieuke (C. 

 ( -lii manga), the latter enjoying such exemption from molestation that they scarcely deign to 



move out of a horseman's way. We reached the chacra of Don soon after sunset, where 



the two ensuing days were passed; and the hours of agreeable conversation with himself and 

 wife will always prove as pleasant a subject for retrospect as their kind and courteous hospitality 

 forms one for grateful remembrance. 



.April 7. Leaving Talca by the main road to the southward, the soil is composed of rolled 

 pebbles, sand, and mineral detritus, producing abundantly whenever water can be brought upon 

 it. It is planted with vines, fruit trees, and garden stuff, intended principally for consumption 

 in the city. After rather more than a league its character changes ; there has been no artificial 

 miration to supply the fertilizing mineral constituent, and it becomes similar to the tract 

 immediately north of the city. Only a growth of espinos is to be found upon it. Population 

 becomes more sparse, and one only occasionally finds a rancho with its small patch of beans and 

 pumpkins. Two leagues S.S.W. is Cerro Chivato, a semi-elliptic spur from the western range, 

 its most elevated portions attaining a height of three to four hundred feet above the plain. A 

 few shrubby plants, and the arborescent cactus, are the only vegetable specimens on its surface. 

 The concavity is towards the Andes. Rains have not worn many gullies ; but where the soil 

 has been thus exposed, it is of a reddish-ochry cast. Along its base, on the whole of the east 

 and southeast sides, there are erratic granite boulders, in many cases of great diameter. The 

 gold mines of Chivato and Chuchunco are on the summit. Both of them have occasionally 

 yielded rich ores, though at this time not more than one dollar of gold is obtained from eacb 

 hundred pounds of metal extracted. The matrix is composed of quartz, soapstone, pyrites, and 

 other equally valueless substances. These mines have been worked for nearly a hundred years ; 

 and as the whole hill is baid to be similarly constituted, the supply is inexhaustible. Few 

 persons, however, are willing to risk working mines where the chances of rich deposits are so 

 slender. After heavy rains in winter the poor of the vicinity resort to the ravines through 

 which the largest bodies of water have flowed, where their search is usually rewarded with 

 grains of pure gold. An establishment for separating the metal from its matrix has been 

 erected on the bank of the Maule. After pulverization in the same manner as the silver ores 

 of Atacama, the earthy portions, being lighter, are washed from the trough by constant additions 



