19* CENTRAL CfftLE. . , [CHAP. xir. 



this appears to be the result of an unequal mixture of cold water : tor 

 those with the lowest temperature have scarcely any mineral taste. 

 After the great earthquake of 1822 the springs ceased, and the water 

 did not return for nearly a year. They were also much affected by the 

 earthquake of 1835 i the temperature being suddenly changed from 

 1 1 8 to 92.* It seems probable that mineral waters rising deep from 

 the bowels of the earth, would always be more deranged by subter- 

 ranean disturbances than those nearer the surface. The man \vho had 

 charge of the baths, assured me that in summer the water is hotter and 

 more plentiful than in winter. The former circumstance I should have 

 expected, from the less mixture, during the dry season, of cold water ; 

 but the latter statement appears very strange and contradictory. The 

 periodical increase during the summer, when rain never falls, can, I 

 think, only be accounted for by the melting of the snow ; yet the 

 mountains which are covered by snow during that season, are three or 

 four leagues distant from the springs. I have no reason to doubt the 

 accuracy of my informer, who, having lived on the spot for several 

 years, ought to be well acquainted with the circumstance, which, if 

 true, certainly is very curious: for, we must suppose that the snow- 

 water, being conducted through porous strata to the regions of heat, is 

 again thrown up to the surface by the line of dislocated and injected 

 rocks at Cauquenes; and the regularity of the phenomenon would 

 seem to indicate, that in this district heated rock occurred at a depth 

 not very great. 



One day I rode up the valley to the farthest inhabited spot. Shortly 

 above that point, the Cachapual divided into two deep tremendous 

 ravines, which penetrate directly into the great range. I scrambled up 

 a peaked mountain, probably more than six thousand feet high. Here, 

 as indeed everywhere else, scenes of the highest interest presented 

 themselves. It was by one of these ravines that Pincheira entered 

 Chile, and ravaged the neighbouring country. This is the same man 

 whose attack on an estancia at the Rio Negro I have described. He 

 was a renegade, half-cast Spaniard, who collected a great body of 

 Indians together and established himself by a stream in the Pampas, 

 which place none of the forces sent after him could ever discover. 

 From this point he used to sally forth, and crossing the Cordillera by 

 passes hitherto unattenipted, he ravaged the farmhouses and drove the 

 cattle to his secret rendezvous. Pincheira was a capital horseman, 

 and he made all around him equally good, for he invariably shot any 

 one who hesitated to follow him. It was against this man, and other 

 wandering Indian tribes, that Rosas waged the war of extermination. 



September i^th. We left the baths of Cauquenes, and rejoining 

 the main road slept at the Rio Claro. From this place we rode to 

 the town of San Fernando. Before arriving there, the last land-locked 

 basin had expanded into a great plain, which extended so far to the 

 south, that the snowy summits of the more distant Andes were seen 

 as if above the horizon of the sea. San Fernando is forty leagues from 

 Santiago ; and it was my farthest point southward ; for we here turned 

 .* Caldcleugh, in Phibsofh. Transact, for 1836. 



