330 CENTRAL CHILE. 



see one at an elevation of at least 4500 feet. These 

 palms are, for their family, ugly trees. Their stem 

 is very large, and of a curious form, being thicker 

 in the middle than at the base or top. They are 

 excessively numerous in some parts of Chile, and 

 valuable on account of a sort of treacle made from 

 the sap. On one estate near Petorca they tried to 

 count them, but failed, after having numbered 

 several hundred thousand. Every year, in the early 

 spring, in August, very many are cut down, and, 

 Avhen the trunk is lying on the ground, the crown 

 of leaves is lopped off. The sap then immediately 

 begins to flow from the upper end, and continues 

 so doing for some months : it is, however, necessary 

 that a thin slice should be shaved off from that end 

 every morning, so as to expose a fresh surface. A 

 good tree will give ninety gallons, and all this 

 must have been contained in the vessels of the ap- 

 parently dry trunk. It is said that the sap flows 

 much more quickly on those days when the sun is 

 powerful; and, likewise, that it is absolutely neces- 

 sary to take care, in cutting down the tree, that it 

 should fall with its head upwards on the side of the 

 hill ; for if it falls down the slope, scarcely any sap 

 will flow, although in that case one would have 

 thought that the action would have been aided, in- 

 stead of checked, by the force of gravity. The sap 

 is concentrated by boiling, and is then called trea- 

 cle, which it very much resembles in taste. 



We unsaddled our horses near the spring, and 

 prepared to pass the night. The evening was fine, 

 and the atmosphere so clear, that the masts of the 

 vessels at anchor in the bay of Valparaiso, although 

 no less than twenty-six geographical miles distant, 

 could be distinguished clearly as little black streaks. 

 A ship doubling the point under sail appeared as 

 fi bright white speck. Anson expresses much sur- 



