A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. 397 



twilight, it illicit very readily be MI|.|..,,,.| a 1'nrtrcss. On the south bank, aUo, and within 

 sight of the Imtlis, there an- iniiii' -lite l...ul.|. i , one of them e..ntaining more than 2,000 



rul>ie feet. They li a narrow terrace more than 160 feet above tin- river, and there in no 



granite eropping out of any of tin- surrounding hills. Whence came these great block*?* 



Whilst I halted heiie.-ith the peunios, nriir tlie Claro, and made a break fast of bread gup- 

 plied from the allot jas (saddle-bags) of Ror Nicolas, and a horn of water from its clear stream, 

 he had pushed (.11 in the houses at the haths, and sought the apartments of my friends, so that 

 they were awaiting me with no little impatience as the tired horse plodded over the last 

 portion (!' the journey. 



On a triangular terrace, or plateau, at the immediate base of a hill that rises nearly a thou- 

 sand feet alx.ve it, and which terminates in a vertical cliff over the river, the mineral waters of 

 Cauquenes are found; and here houses have been built for the use of invalids. The plateau 

 will measure about three acres. Within a few hundred yards, up the stream, a somewhat 

 similar hill to the one back of the springs rises to nearly the same height; and between the two 

 there is it deep quebrada with a rivulet of clear snow-water. Opposite the up-stream hill, on 

 the other side of the river, there are other small terraces, behind which rise series of steep 

 mountains, also covered with perennial verdure. Between the two hills last mentioned, and 

 whose bases are scarcely 150 yards apart, is the gorge through which the river flows, exhibiting 

 other mountain buttresses close at hand. Their summits are widely enough separated to permit 

 a view of the dreary peaks of the loftiest, and still far off, Andes. Hill beyond hill, as they are 

 arranged, the perspective is so foreshortened that the snow-cliffs seem almost at hand ; and about 

 sunset so distinctly are the shadows marked, that one thinks them accessible in a walk of an 

 hour or two; yet an active horseman will be two long days climbing to their crests. 



The terraces are now 150 feet higher than the surface of the river, their faces broken down 

 vertically by its furious and muddy torrent. Just above the baths the latter is separated into 

 two streams by a pyramidal mass of rock. This has nearly the same height as the plateau, 

 and is connected with the terrace of the springs above the water-line. There is a like pile of 

 rock between it and the north shore, so that the entire volume of water is again collected in a 

 stream not more than ten yards wide. At night, when everything is still, the roar of the 

 waters through this narrow pass is equal to that of the ocean breaking on a lonely beach. So 

 rapid is it that no one has as yet been able to ascertain its depth at this point. Along the bed 

 there are large boulders of granite and limestone, over which the water is forced by its descend- 

 ing momentum, presenting to the sight a 'surface broken like a miniature sea. Within an oval 

 panorama, scarce a league in its longer diameter, the eye embraces blackened masses of rock, on 

 which fire seems to have exercised its influence but yesterday, tumbled in every possible direc- 

 tion sometimes in the streams, sometimes in broad patches of the hills as though injected 

 through the broken up surface ; now with columnar faces, like basalt where the mountain tops 

 had been convulsed ; again of the size and form of habitations without their concomitants of 

 human life. In one place there is a dense forest ; in another a solitary tree, an arborescent 

 cactus, or a Chaiiar, (Molina, Puya), with its gigantic spike of flowerets conspicuous against the 

 blue sky. On one side we see a patch of wild pasture, golden in its decay ; opposite, a level 

 and narrow glen covered with foliage variant only in its hues of green ; above and around 

 there are mountains whose slopes and heights are of every graceful curve and inequality ; and 



' " This second fact is yet more remarkable, and M. Gay baa known bow to appreciate all its importance. 



" On i In- hacienda of Cauquenes he observed it with all its developments. The valleys of this district are, as we have just 

 described, formed with steep walls composed only of basalt or analogous rocks. No other rocks are seen, says M. Gay, for 

 twenty leagues rouud. 



"There is not known, either in the valleys, or at their origin within this limit, any bed, peak, or mass of granite in situ ; yet 

 the vnlleys are full, cumbered to the third of thrir height, and obstructed by an immense accumulation of pebbles and blocks 

 of granite an accumulation which one may assert to be prodigious and inconceivable, notwithstanding all that we know, and all 

 that baa been observed in other countries respecting pebbles or blocks foreign to the soil they cover." Rapport fait dCAcadcmie 

 Koyid drs Sciences sur Us tratauz g6alogitjues de M. Gay. Annulet dcs Sciences Nattmlles, tome XXfllf. 



The basalt is the same dark porpbyritic rock of which Santa Lucia and so large a portion of the Andes are constituted. Such 

 accumulations of granitic fragments may exist higher up the Cachapual than my journey. 



