l8j 4 -] THE BELL OF QUILLOTA. iS; 



charqui (or dried slips of beep, took our mate", and were quite comfort- 

 able. There is an inexpressible charm in thus living in the open air. 

 The evening was calm and still; the shrill noise of the mountain 

 bizcacha, and the faint cry of a goat-sucker, were occasionally to be 

 heard. Besides these, few birds, or even insects, frequent these dry, 

 parched mountains. 



August ijth. In the morning we climbed up the rough mass of 

 greenstone which crowns the summit. This rock, as frequently 

 happens, was much shattered and broken into huge angular fragments. 

 I observed, however, one remarkable circumstance, namely, that many 

 of the surfaces presented every degree of freshness some appearing 

 as if broken the day before, whilst on others lichens had either just 

 become, or had long grown, attached. I so fully believed that this was 

 owing to the frequent earthquakes, that I felt inclined to hurry from 

 below each loose pile. As one might very easily be deceived in a fact of 

 this kind, I doubted its accuracy, until ascending Mount Wellington, in 

 Van Diemen's Land, where earthquakes do not occur ; and there I saw 

 the summit of the mountain similarly composed and similarly shattered, 

 but all the blocks appeared as if they had been hurled into their present 

 position thousands of years ago. 



We spent the day on the summit, and I never enjoyed one more 

 thoroughly. Chile, bounded by the Andes and the Pacific, was seen 

 as in a map. The pleasure from the scenery, in itself beautiful, was 

 heightened by the many reflections which arose from the mere view of 

 the Campana range with its lesser parallel ones, and of the broad valley 

 of Quillota directly intersecting them. Who can avoid wondering at 

 the force which has upheaved these mountains, and even more so at 

 the countless ages which it must have required, to have broken through, 

 removed, and levelled whole masses of them? It is well in this case, 

 to call to mind the vast shingle and sedimentary beds of Patagonia, 

 which, if heaped on the Cordillera, would increase its height by so many 

 thousand feet When in that country, I wondered how any mountain- 

 chain could have supplied such masses, and not have been utterly 

 obliterated. We must not now reverse the wonder, and doubt whether 

 all-powerful time can grind down mountains even the gigantic Cor- 

 dillera into gravel and mud. 



The appearance of the Andes was different from that which I had 

 expected. The lower line of the snow was of course horizontal, and to 

 this line the even summits of the range seemed quite parallel Only at 

 long intervals, a group of points or a single cone, showed where a volcano 

 had existed, or does now exist Hence the range resembled a great solid 

 wall, surmounted here and there by a tower, and making a most perfect 

 barrier to the country. 



Almost every part of the hill had been drilled by attempts to open 

 gold-mines : the rage for mining has left scarcely a spot in Chile un- 

 examined. I spent the evening as before, talking round the fire with my 

 two companions. The Guasos of Chile, who correspond to he Gauchos 

 ol the Pampas, are, however, a very different set of beings. Chile is the 

 more civilized of the two countries, and the inhabitants, in sonsequence, 



