A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. ./J3 



closely l>uilt ]nrtitii .f the town each house having an enclose*! field and garden. From a 

 in. -an <.i thn-r l.aroinetiiral oliservat i<>ns on as many days, the height of Han Fernando above 



the oi-ean is 1,4 In ! 



Tli. i. ai, three principal establishments for education here two for boys, and one for girls 

 all at tin- expense of the |iulili< -. The "Literary Lyceum," established by government, seems to 

 have been unpopular from tin time of its creation, and has never attracted many scholars to ite 

 halls of gratuitous learning. The other school for boys, called "Union College," has been 

 recently established; and as it is din. t< <1 l.\ a e..mp. -t.-nt p. -is.m, it is to be hoped that he will 

 prove more successful. The school statistics of San Fernando, puhluhed during our residence in 

 ( 'hile, show a much smaller number of pupils attending them than is proper for even a Hispano- 

 Ameriran population. It was complained of at the time by government, whose editor believed 

 that it was owing either to reprehensible negligence, or the desire of parents to send their 

 children to the more perfect schools at Santiago. In these schools, the Intendente says, the 

 "pupils who ordinarily attend" number 100; but it is very certain that the number was scarcely 

 more than half as great in 1852. 



Just without the town to the north is Tambo creek, now nearly dry. It penetrates the Western 

 rordilleras, leaving bold promontories close to each other on either side ; and a hill properly 

 belonging to that chain is thus within the plain. There is also a spur which extends in a south- 

 west direction from the Andes towards the hill of Tambo, or Minas, as some of the guasos called 

 it ; so that at five leagues from San Fernando the two ranges are not a hundred yards apart. 

 A little streamlet winds closely along the southeast base of the Andean spur, and passes through 

 the Angostura Requelemu to the northward. In the dry season its waters are wholly lost in the 

 pebbly bed of the pass or gorge ; but the abundance of verdure to the southwest on the northern 

 side of the hill separated from the western cordillera, is evidence of its reappearance within a 

 short distance, and use for irrigation. Passing the Requelemu, one is again enclosed by hills 

 to the north scarcely a league distant, through which there is a somewhat similar pass into the 

 plain or basin of Rengo. 



The luxuriant growth of espinos, with which the upper extremity of the plain of San Fernando 

 is covered, was fairly alive with birds, apparently rejoicing in the absence of the sun or envious 

 of each other, from the shrillness with which their several notes were whistled. Loicas. (Stur- 

 netta militaris), tordas (Agelaius curceus), trencas (Mimus thencci), loros (Comurus cyanalysios), 

 even the discordant queltregue (Vanellus cayennensis), each seemed striving to make the greatest 

 clatter among the undergrowth of thistles where they were seeking food. And along the fences 

 here, and very frequently elsewhere in Chile, formed from branches of espinos piled against 

 posts, there were multitudes of field-rats (M. longipilis), not unlike squirrels, with their long, 

 curled, and somewhat bushy tails and erect posture. Dozens of them sit inquisitively in the 

 road, with quite the grey squirrel's attitude, until the traveller is near, when they scud to 

 their holes beneath the brushwood. 



Dense volumes of clouds concealed the summits of all the mountains, and in some directions 

 extended so far into the ravines as to prevent a satisfactory view of the valley to the northward 

 of the hill cut off by the Tambo. Coming into that of Colchagua, or as it was called above, 

 Rengo, the pass is over a road elevated some fifty feet above the plain,, and is extremely short. 

 Beyond it, within a brief half hour's travel of a tired horse, the cordillera due west is twenty 

 miles away ; and though the near range of the Andes is closer, one sees, at every step to the 

 northward, how the valley widens. It was no little grateful to the eye to come amid verdure 

 again ; not verdant belts and patches by the river banks, but a broad plain and the mountain 

 sides, as far up as the clouds permitted them to be visible, profusely covered with vegetation. 

 In every direction the laborers and inquilinos were gathering their small harvests ; and every 

 rancho had its pile of red peppers spread on the earth to dry, most of their denizens being busily 

 engaged in threshing or treading out the bean-crops. 

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