STATE OF .SUCIETY. 341 



lived on the spot for several years, ought to be well 

 acquainted with, the circumstance, which, if trut-, 

 certainly is very curious ; for we must suppose that 

 the snow-water, being conducted through porous 

 strata to the regions of heat, is again thrown up to 

 the surface by the line of dislocated and injected 

 rocks at Cauquenes ; and the regularity of the phe- 

 nomenon would seem to indicate that in this dis- 

 trict heated rock occurred at a depth not very great. 



One day I x'ode up the valley to the farthest in- 

 habited spot. Shortly above that point the Cacha- 

 pual divides into two deep, tremendous ravines, 

 which penetrate directly into the great range. I 

 scrambled up a peaked mountain, probably more 

 tlian six thousand feet high. Here, as indeed ev- 

 erywhere else, scenes of the higliest interest pre- 

 sented themselves. It was by one of these ravines 

 that Pincheira entered Chile and ravaged the 

 neighbouring country. This is the same man 

 whose attack on an estancia at the Rio Negro 1 

 have described. He was a renegade half-cast 

 Spaniard, who collected a great body of Indians 

 together, and established himself by a stream in the 

 Pampas, which ])lace none of the forces sent after 

 him could ever discover. From this point he used 

 to sally forth, and crossing the Cordillera by passes 

 hitherto unattempted, he ravaged the farm-houses 

 and drove the cattle to his secret rendezvous. Pin- 

 cheira was a capital horseman, and he made all 

 around him equally good, for he invariably shot any 

 one who hesitated to follow him. It was against 

 this man and other wandering Indian tribes that 

 Rosas waged the war of extermination. 



Scpte7)iber I2th. — We left the baths of Cau- 

 quenes, and, rejoining the main road, slept at the 

 Rio Claro. From this place we rode to the town 

 of S. Fernando. Before arriving there, the last 

 F F 2 



