SOUTHERN AND WESTERN SHORES OF THE CONTINENT. 341 



Palm-trees appear in latitude 87°; and an arborescent grass, 

 very like the bamboo, three degrees further north. 



In many places the ocean washes the base of the Andes, or 

 huge spurs project from the mountains; and in others a narrow 

 belt alone is left between them and the water. The whole of 

 Chili, indeed, consists of a narrow strip of land between the 

 Cordilleras and the Pacific ; while this strip is often traversed 

 by several mountain lines, which in some parts run parallel 

 to the great range. Extending to the south, between these 

 outer lines and the main Cordilleras, we find a succession 

 of level basins, generally blending into each other by narrow 

 passages. 



In the neighbourhood of Valparaiso, above which Acon- 

 cagua (23,000 feet in height) looks down on the Pampas on 

 one side and the blue Pacific on the other, is the beautiful 

 valley of Guillota, thoroughly irrigated and brought under 

 cultivation. It has, during the whole summer, the hot sun 

 striking down from a cloudless sky. It is only in these parts 

 where the nature of the streams affords means of irrigation 

 that vegetation can exist. 



Further north, the western shore is in many parts very 

 arid ; and about latitude 20° south the burning desert com- 

 mences, extending 540 leagues — almost to the Gulf of Guay- 

 aquil — and varying in width from three to twenty leagues. 

 Over this region of death, heaps of stone or mounds of sand 

 are alone seen, except where, at wide intervals, some moun- 

 tain stream, fed by the melting snows of the lofty peaks, 

 finds its way into the ocean. It is only in the neighbour- 

 hood of these rivers that man can venture to take up his 

 abode. On the banks of most of them have been built the 

 few cities which exist near the sea in Peru. For some miles 



