1 64 NOTES OF A NATL'RALIST. 



carries one for about fifty miles parallel to the great 

 range of the Cordillera, is very interesting, even at 

 this season, when much of the country shows a 

 parched surface. The finest views are those gained 

 where the line passes opposite the opening through 

 which the Maipo issues from the mountains into the 

 plain. This river, which ev^en in the dry season shows 

 a respectable volume of water, is formed by the union 

 of the torrents from four valleys that penetrate nearly 

 to the axis of the Cordillera. Of Tupungato, the 

 highest summit hereabouts, 20,270 feet above sea- 

 level, I saw nothing, as it is masked by a very lofty 

 range that divides two of the tributary valleys. A 

 slender wreath of vapour marked the volcano of San 

 Jose, just twenty thousand feet in height, at the head 

 of the southern branch of the river. It is only at one 

 point visible from the railway. 



On the way from Valparaiso to Santiago I had 

 already been much struck by the prevalence over 

 wide areas of plants not indigenous to the country, 

 most of them introduced from Southern Europe. The 

 most conspicuous are plants of the thistle tribe, all 

 strangers to South America, and especially the 

 cardoon, or wild state of the common artichoke. This 

 is now far more common in temperate South America 

 than it anywhere is in its native home in the Mediter- 

 ranean region. In Chili it is regarded with some 

 favour, as mules, and even horses, eat the large spiny 

 leaves freely at a season when other forage is scarce. 

 The same cannot be said of our common coarse spear- 

 thistle {Cjiiciis lanceolatus), which, though of much 

 more recent introduction, has now invaded large 



