PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF CHILI. 169 



quite different places. One bound for the Baths of 

 Cauquenes must be careful not to confound these 

 with the town of Cauquenes, the chief place of a 

 department of the same name, more than a hundred 

 miles farther to the south. 



Before reaching Gualtro we had crossed the Cacha- 

 poal, a torrential stream which drains several valleys 

 of the high Cordillera. Our course now lay eastward, 

 towards the point where the river issues from the 

 mountains into the plain, and where, as everywhere 

 in Central Chili, its waters are largely used for irriga- 

 tion. The road along the left bank lies on a slope 

 at some height above the stream, and gives a wide 

 view over the plain, backed by the great range of the 

 Cordillera. Irrespective of the picturesque interest 

 of the grand view, I added somewhat to the impres- 

 sions respecting the physical geography of Central 

 Chili which I had recently received from an exami- 

 nation of Petermann's reduction from the large govern- 

 ment map, and from the information given me at 

 Santiago. 



I had reached Chili with no other ideas respecting 

 the configuration of the country than those derived 

 from the twelfth chapter of Darwin's "Journal of 

 Researches," which with little modification have been 

 repeated by subsequent writers, even so lately as in 

 the excellent article on " Chile," in the American 

 Cyclopaedia. 



Struck by the conformation of the range between 

 Quillota and Santiago, and the somew^hat similar 

 range south of the Maipo, and writing at a time when 

 there were no maps deserving of the name, and when 



