396 A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. 



road as soon as we passed one other hill, there was no alternative but to follow him. Moreover, 

 he had no acquaintance with the other road, and to turn hack now was to risk passing the 

 night in the mountains with only a rock or tree for a shelter. 



From the ford to the baths the distance is rather more than seven leagues. The first two 

 and a half are of the character just described, varied by an occasional descent to the river-bed, 

 along which the horse must pick his way among loose stones and sand-knolls, thrown up by 

 occasional changes of the course of the stream during freshets. Scanty natural vegetation may 

 be found on all these knolls, and the hill-sides abound with dwarf palqui (oestrum pf) bushes 

 and arborescent cacti ; the latter beautiful only from their forms, and the clusters of scarlet 

 quintral blossoms crowning their highest arms. Here the river is departed from; its course is 

 more from the northward; that of the good bridle-road now entered on, southeasterly, until 

 passing the houses of the estate to which the baths belong. A narrow stream of limpid water, 

 flowing from the latter direction, and called the Eio Cauquenes, serves to irrigate a portion of 

 the table-land on its banks, its surplus falling into the Cachapual at this place. Within another 

 mile the road winds up and around the southern base of an arid hill, and one is wholly within 

 the Andes. Distance has already softened the hues of the hills near the ford ; the noise of the 

 river can no longer be heard ; before you stand forests whose ever- vital foliage is more obscure 

 than the olive-leaf in color; and away to the eastward, above the summits of mountains thus 

 clad, tower the barren and ragged snow-cliffs. Though traversable only on foot or by eques- 

 trians, the last five leagues of the road are perfectly safe and comparatively good. Exquisite 

 mountain- views are constantly afforded : sometimes of small verdant terraces at the base of lofty 

 hills, yet high above the surface of the river; at others of bold headlands round which the stream 

 sweeps in a graceful curve, a mass of foam marking every obstacle to its impetuosity; and again 

 of deep ravines strewn with enormous fragments tumbled from the surrounding rocky hills by 

 the mighty internal power that so often shakes this quarter of the globe. Within the second 

 of the last five leagues we again approach the river; and thence to the end of the journey the 

 path never departs so far that its voice may not be heard amid the forests of boldo, litre, qui- 

 llay, and peumo, adorning the hill-sides. Each of these trees is of note: the first, from the aro- 

 matic odor of its leaves, and their extremely dark hue; the litre, from the silvery clusters of. 

 berries pendent amid its glossy foliage; the quillay, from the excellent qualities of its bark; 

 and the peumo, from the crimson hue of its now just ripening fruit. 



The third Claro that I have named, a small silvery stream from the southeast, unites its waters 

 with the turbid torrent from the Andes, within a league of the baths. It is a very short, though 

 not very rapid stream, originating within the outer range of the Andes. Some of the guasos 

 told me that it was supplied from the surplus of Lake Cauquenes; though M. Gray places this 

 small mountain deposit some distance to the westward, with a range of mountains between it 

 and the head-waters of the Claro. The lake is smaller than that of Aculeo, but, like it, 

 abounds in fine fish and wild fowl of the same varieties: truchas (Perca trucha), vagres (Try- 

 chomycterus maculatus), and pejereys (Basilichthys microlepidotus) , being the greatest table 

 favorites among the finny tribe; swans, an infinite variety of ducks, flamingos, planetas (Platalea 

 ajaja), pillos (Ciconia pillus) , and cuervos, forming a portion, and the most conspicuous, among 

 the feathered race. A like origin is assigned by the guasos to the river Cauquenes. 



Above the Claro the ground is more broken, and the hills smaller and closer together. As 

 the road along their northern slopes becomes more undulating, every few moments of travel 

 brings new and more picturesque scenes to view, eliciting admiration arid astonishment. One 

 of the most remarkable eminences is on the same side, and just beyond the Claro. It is a 

 mountain with a summit a thousand feet above the stream, whose northern face is strewn with 

 untold millions of blocks of metamorphic porphyry broken from its crest, and leaving it for 

 more than half a mile a vertical blackened wall resembling a great battlement that had encoun- 

 tered the fire of artillery during ages. As the upper and lower lines of the vertical palisades 

 are nearly parallel, and there are occasional breaks in them, not unlike embrazures in the 



