346 CENTRAL CHILE. 



land, do not you think the King of England would 

 very soon send us out of his country V And this 

 old gentleman, from his profession, belongs to the 

 better-informed and more intelligent classes ! Re- 

 nous himself, two or three years before, left in a 

 house at S. Fernando some caterpillars, under 

 charge of a girl to feed, that they might turn into 

 buttei-flies. This was rumoured through the town, 

 and at last the Padres and Governor consulted to- 

 gether, and agi-eed it must be some heresy. Ac- 

 cordingly, when Renous retunied, he was arrested. 



Sej}(e//ibcr 19th. — We left Yaquil, and followed 

 the flat valley, formed like that of Quillota, in which 

 the Rio Tinderidica flows. Even at these few miles 

 south of Santiago the climate is much damper : in 

 consequence, there were fine tracts of pasturage, 

 which were not irrigated. (20th.) We followed 

 this valley till it expanded into a great plain, which 

 reaches from the sea to the mountains west of Ran- 

 cagua. We shortly lost all trees and even bushes, 

 so that the inhabitants are nearly as badly off" for 

 firewood as those in Pampas. Never having heard 

 of these plains, I was much sui-prised at meeting 

 with such scenery in Chile. The plains belong to 

 more than one series of different elevations, and 

 they are traversed by broad, flat-bottomed valleys ; 

 both of which circumstances, as in Patagonia, be- 

 speak the action of the sea on gently rising land. 

 In the steep cliffs bordering these valleys, there are 

 some large caves, which no doubt were originally 

 formed by the waves : one of these is celebrated 

 under the name of Cueva del Obispo, having for- 

 merly been consecrated. During the day I felt very 

 imwell, and from that time till the end of October 

 did not recover. 



Sej)tember 22d. — We continued to pass over 

 g een plains without a tree. The next day we ar- 



