258 ON THE BELL MOUNTAIN, [chap. xit. 



presented every degree of freshness — some appearing as if 

 broken the day before, whilst on others lichens had either 

 just become, or had long grown, attached. I so fully 

 believed that this was owing to the frequent earthquakes, 

 that I felt inclined to hurry from below each loose pile. As 

 one might very easily be deceived in a fact of this kind, I 

 doubted its accuracy, until ascending Mount Wellington, in 

 Van Diemen's Land, where earthquakes do not occur ; and 

 there I saw the summit of the mountain similarly composed 

 and similarly shattered, but all the blocks appeared as il 

 they had been hurled into their present position thousands 

 of years ago. 



We spent the day on the summit, and I never 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 valley 

 of Quillota directly intersecting them. Who can avoid 

 wondering at the force which has upheaved 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? 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 grind 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. 



Almost 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 unexamined. 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 



