332 CENTRAL CHILE. 



enjoyed one more thoroughly. Chile, bounded by 

 the Andes and the Pacific, was seen as in a map. 

 The pleasure from the scenery, in itself beautiful, 

 was heightened by the many reflections which 

 arose from the mere view of the Campana range 

 with its lesser parallel ones, and of the broad val- 

 ley of Quillota directly intersecting them. Who 

 can avoid wondering at the force which has up- 

 heaved these mountains, and even more so at the 

 countless ages which it must have required to 

 have broken through, removed, and levelled whole 

 masses of them 1 It is well in this case to call to 

 mind the vast shingle and sedimentary beds of 

 Patagonia, which, if heaped on the Cordillera, 

 would increase its height by so many thousand 

 feet. When in that country, I wondered how any 

 mountain chain could have supplied such masses, 

 and not have been utterly obliterated. We must 

 not now reverse the wonder, and doubt whether 

 all-powerful time can giind down mountains — even 

 the gigantic Cordillera — into gravel and mud. 



The appearance of the Andes was different from 

 that which I had expected. The lower line of the 

 snow was of course horizontal, and to this line the 

 even summits of the range seemed quite parallel. 

 Only at long intervals, a group of points or a single 

 cone showed where a volcano had existed, or does 

 now exist. Hence the range resembled a great 

 solid wall, surmounted here and there by a tower, 

 and making a most perfect barrier to the country. 



Alinost every part of the hill had been drilled 

 by attempts to open gold-mines : the rage for 

 mining has left scarcely a spot in Chile unexam- 

 ined. I spent the evening as before, talking round 

 the fire with my two companions. The Guasos 

 of Chile, who correspond to the Gauchos of the 

 Pampas, are, however, a v^ery different set of 



