328 CENTRAL CHILE. 



ately under our feet. The prospect was one of 

 remarkable aitificial luxuriance. The valley is 

 very broad and quite flat, and is thus easily irrigated 

 in all parts. The little square gardens are crowded 

 with orange and olive trees, and every sort of ve- 

 getable. On each side huge bare mountains rise, 

 and this, from the contrast, renders the patchwork 

 valley the more pleasing. "Whoever called " Val- 

 paraiso" the " Valley of Paradise," must have been 

 thinking of Quillota. We crossed over to the 

 Hacienda de San Isidro, situated at the very foot 

 of the Bell Mountain. 



Chile, as may be seen in the maps, is a narrow 

 strip of land between the C ordillera and the Pacific; 

 and this strip is itself traversed by several movmt- 

 ain lines, which in this part run parallel to the 

 great range. Between these outer lines and the 

 main Cordillera, a succession of level basins, gen- 

 erally opening into each other by nan'ow passages, 

 extend far to the southward : in these the principal 

 towns are situated, as San Felipe, Santiago, fean 

 Fernando. These basins or plains, together with 

 the transverse flat valleys (like that of Quillota) 

 which connect them with the coast, I have no doubt 

 are the bottoms of ancient inlets and deep bays, 

 such as at the present day intersect every part of 

 TieiTa del Fuego and the western coast. Chile 

 must formerly have resembled the latter countiy in 

 the configuration of its land and water. The re- 

 semblance was occasionally shown strikingly when 

 a level fog-bank covered, as with a mantle, all the 

 lower parts of the country : the white vapour curl- 

 ing into the ravines, beautifully represented little 

 coves and bays ; and here and there a solitary hil- 

 lock peeping up, showed that it had formerly stood 

 there as an islet. The contrast of these flat valleys 

 and basins with the iiTegular moimtains gave the 



