1834.] STRUCTURE OF CHILE. 255 



surface, or are embedded in a reddish-black vegetable mould. 

 I was much surprised to find under the microscope that this 

 vegetable mould is really marine mud, full of minute 

 particles of organic bodies. 



August ic^th. — We returned towards the valley of Quillota. 

 The country was exceedingly pleasant ; just such as poets 

 would call pastoral : green open lawns, separated by small 

 valleys with rivulets, and the cottages, we may suppose of 

 the shepherds, scattered on the hill-sides. We were obliged 

 to cross the ridge of the Chilicauquen. At its base there 

 were many fine evergreen forest-trees, but these flourished 

 only in the ravines, where there was running water. Any 

 person who had seen only the country near Valparaiso, 

 would never have imagined that there had been such 

 picturesque spots in Chile. As soon as we reached the 

 brow of the Sierra, the valley of Quillota was immediately 

 under our feet. The prospect was one of remarkable 

 artificial 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 vegetable. On each side huge bare 

 mountains rise, and this from the contrast renders the 

 patchwork valley the more pleasing. Whoever called 

 "Valparaiso" 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 tne Cordillera and the Pacific ; and this strip 

 is Itself traversed by several mountain-lines, which in this 

 part run parallel to the pfreat range. Between these outer 

 lines and the main Cordillera, a succession of level basins, 

 generally opening into each other by narrow passages, 

 extend far to the southward : in these, the principal towns 

 are situated, as San Felipe, Santiago, San 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 Tierra del F'uego and the western coast. Chile must 

 formerly have resembled the latter country in the con- 

 figuration of Its land and water. The resemblance was 

 ocrasionallv shown strikingly when a level fog-bank covered, 

 Mantle, all the lower parts of the country: tli» 



