CENTRAL CHILE. [CHAP. xn. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Valparaiso Excursion to the foot of the Andes -Structure of the land 

 Ascend the Bell of Quillota Shattered masses of greenstone Immense 

 valleys Mines State of miners Santiago Hot-baths of Cauquenes 

 Gold-mines Grinding-mills Perforated stones Habits of the Puma- 

 El Turco and Tapacolo Humming-birds. 



CENTRAL CHILE. 



July 23rd. The Beagle anchored late at night in the bay of 

 Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chile. When morning came, 

 everything appeared delightful. After Tierra del Fuego, the 

 climate felt quite delicious the atmosphere so dry, and the 

 heavens so clear and blue with the sun shining brightly, that all 

 nature seemed sparkling with life. The view from the anchor- 

 age is very pretty. The town is built at the very foot of a range 

 of hills, about 1600 feet high, and rather steep. From its posi- 

 tion, it consists of one long, straggling street, which runs parallel 

 to the beach, and wherever a ravine comes down, the houses are 

 piled up on each side of it. The rounded hills, being only par- 

 tially protected by a very scanty vegetation, are worn into num- 

 berless little gullies, which expose a singularly bright red soil. 

 From this cause, and from the low whitewashed houses with tile 



subject has lately been treated excellently by Mr. Hayes, in the Boston 

 Journal (vol. iv. p. 426). The author does not appear aware of a case pub- 

 lished by me (Geographical Journal, vol. ix. p. 528), of a gigantic boulder 

 embedded in an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean, almost certainly one hundred 

 miles distant from any land, and perhaps much more distant. In the Ap- 

 pendix I have discussed at le.igth, the probability (at that time hardly 

 thought of) of icebergs, when stranded, grooving and polishing rocks, like 

 glaciers. This is now a very commonly received opinion ; and I cannot 

 still avoid the suspicion that it is applicable even to such cases as that of the 

 Jura. Dr. Richardson has assured me, that the icebergs off North America 

 push before them pebbles and sand, and leave the submarine rocky flats 

 quite bare : it is hardly possible to doubt that such ledges must be polished 

 and scored in the direction of the set of the prevailing currents. Since 

 writing that Appendix, I have seen in North Wales (London Phil. Mag., 

 vol. xxi. p. 180) the adjoining action of glaciers and of floating icebergs. 



