1834.] THE BELL OF QUILLOTA. 185 



much surprised to find under the microscope that this vegetable mould 

 is really marine mud, full of minute particles of organic bodies. 



August lyh. We returned towards the valley of Quillota. The 

 country was exceedingly pleasant ; just such as poets would call 

 pastoral : green open lawns, separated by small valleys with rivulets, 

 and the cottages, we may suppose of the shepherds, scattered on the 

 hill-sides. We were obliged to cross the ridge of the Chilicauquen. 

 At its base there were many fine evergreen forest-trees, but these 

 flourished only in the ravines, where there was running water. Any 

 person who had seen only the country near Valparaiso, would never 

 have imagined that there had been such picturesque spots in Chile. 

 As soon as we reached the brow of the Sierra, the valley of Quillota 

 was immediately under our feet. The prospect was one of remarkable 

 artificial luxuriance. The valley is very broad and quite flat, and is 

 thus easily irrigated in all parts. The little square gardens are crowded 

 with orange and olive trees, and every sort of vegetable. On each side 

 huge bare mountains rise, and this from the contrast renders the patch- 

 work valley the more pleasing Whoever called "Valparaiso" the 

 11 Valley of Paradise," must have been thinking of Quillota. We a crossed 

 over to the Hacienda de San Isidro, situated at the very foot of the 

 Bell Mountain. 



Chile, as may be seen in the maps, is a narrow strip of land between 

 the Cordillera and the Pacific; and this strip is itself traversed by 

 several mountain-lines, which in this part run parallel to the great 

 range. Between these outer lines and the main Cordillera, a succession 

 of level basins, generally opening into each other by narrow passages, 

 extend far to the southward : in these, the principal towns are situated, 

 as San Felipe, Santiago, San Fernando. These basins or plains, 

 together with the transverse flat valleys (like that of Quillota) which 

 connect them with the coast, I have no doubt are the bottoms of ancient 

 inlets and deep bays, such as at the present day intersect every part of 

 Tierra del Fuego and the western coast. Chile must formerly have 

 resembled the latter country in the configuration of its land and water. 

 The resemblance was occasionally shown strikingly when a level fog- 

 bank covered, as with a mantle, all the lower parts of the country : the 

 white vapour curling into the ravines, beautifully represented little coves 

 and bays ; and here and there a solitary hillock peeping up, showed 

 that it had formerly stood there as an islet The contrast of these flat 

 valleys and basins with the irregular mountains, gave the scenery a 

 character which to me was new and very interesting. 



From the natural slope to seaward of these plains, they are very 

 easily irrigated, and in consequence singularly fertile. Without this 

 process the land would produce scarcely anything, for during the whole 

 summer the sky is cloudless. The mountains and hills are dotted over 

 with bushes and low trees, and excepting these the vegetation is very 

 scanty. Each landowner in the valley possesses a certain portion of hill- 

 country, where his half-wild cattle, in considerable numbers, manage to 

 find sufficient pasture. Once every year there is a grand " rodeo," when 

 all the cattle are driven down, counted, and marked, and a certain 



