392 A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. 



ordinary branches of education are taught, had 45 scholars. The number of pupils in that for 

 girls could not be learned. Both these are at the cost of the municipality, who also support 

 teachers for two primary schools, at which the attendance is small and very irregular. 



At 10 A. M. the barometer stood at 28.854 inches, corresponding to an elevation of 1,070 feet. 



After leaving Curico, the first five miles are over a slightly elevated road, with good soil, 

 plenty of water, and cultivation on both sides, according to the mode known here. Then 

 follow two miles of barren and hilly country like that to be mentioned directly. On the 

 border of the Teno a clear stream flowing into the Mataquito four leagues below there is 

 some vegetation. Immediately after crossing it, however, the land rises quite rapidly ; and 

 from one range of mountains to the other, it is broken into an infinity of hillocks of every ima- 

 ginable form, though none of them rise more than 20 or 30 feet above the general surface. For 

 twelve miles in the direction of the road, the entire valley, from chain to chain, is a complete 

 d eser t the surface of the ground being covered with broken rocks and pebbles which do not seem 

 to have undergone much attrition. One huge boulder stands off to the east of the road, a monu- 

 ment in the midst of desolation. Two or three pretty flowers clinging to the ground find sus- 

 tenance even on this arid surface; and the little snipe-shaped bird (Certhilauda?), common on 

 the sands between Caldera and the city of Copiapo, also finds a home here. The tract is called 

 " Los Cerrittos de Teno," and is, apparently, a uniform and regular dike, upheaved to a height of 

 one hundred feet from the Andes to the Western Cordilleras, on whose surface these hillocks lie. 



Descending from them to the plain across which the Chimbarongo creek flows, abundant 

 vegetation is again met with ; the distance between the two mountain chains begins to di- 

 minish, and continues to do so with rapidity as we proceed north, until they are not more than 

 nine miles apart. Indeed, an oval hill between them, and a little to the south of the Tingui- 

 ririca, makes them seem still closer to each other than they really are. It was hoped something 

 might be had for ourselves as well as our horses at the posada of Chimbarongo ; but, as when 

 we passed previously, its proprietors and servants were away, and there were only two or three 

 half-naked childen, who were amusing themselves turning somersaults in a pile of straw. It 

 was already five o'clock ; and the western sky was covered with clouds, boding no good to the 

 equestrian traveller at this advanced season. The Tinguiririca had to be crossed ; and as there 

 was no ascertaining when our necessities might be supplied, it became of primary importance 

 to push on, rather than risk rain in such a den next day. Yet a little later, and when the prox- 

 imity of the road to the western range caused the disappearance of the sun to us long before it 

 set, it was no little gratifying to see the masses of leaden-colored clouds converted into a crimson 

 canopy, and the distant snow-covered summits of the Andes illuminated with rosy-orange tints. 

 During the last ten miles, the valley is scarcely that many in width, bat evidences the advan- 

 tages which irrigation from the river produces. It supports a larger population, and, in con- 

 sequence, there is much more animation than in the vicinity of Curico. From neglect to drain 

 it properly, a part of the land has become swampy. On this, flocks of that pretty ibis, Falli- 

 cinellus, with its changeable hues of green ; garzas (Ardea egretta) ; and taguas (Gallinula cras- 

 sirostris), were feeding quietly, utterly indifferent to the passer-by. As it was night when we 

 reached the ford, Nor Nicolas took the lead across the pebbly bed ; and so slowly were we 

 obliged to proceed through the two milky torrents in the dark, that it was half-past Y o'clock 

 when we reached the posada at the northern entrance of San Fernando. 



The town is nearly a league from the Tinguiririca, and about the same distance from the 

 base of the Western Cordilleras. Its compactly built houses cover half a mile square; its 

 location, below the winter floods of the Tinguiririca and Antinero creek, being most unfor- 

 tunate. Though larger than Curico, like it the houses and streets are rude and wretched to ap- 

 pearance the latter, in many cases, being only paved on one side, and the former, low and in- 

 commodious. Including the suburbs, its population is estimated at 12,000 souls, for whom, 

 strange to relate, there are only two churches, and these are far worse looking than many in the 

 hamlets of the country. The suburbs extend more than half a mile in each direction from the 



