264 HOT MINERAL SPRINGS. [chap. xii. 



torrents are quite impassable ; their strength and fury is 

 then extremely great, as might be plainly seen by the marks 

 which they had left. We reached the baths in the evening, 

 and stayed there five days, being confined the two last by 

 heavy rain. The buildings consist of a square of miserable 

 little hovels, each with a single table and bench. They are 

 situated in a narrow deep valley just without the central 

 Cordillera. It is a quiet, solitary spot, with a good deal 

 of wild beauty. 



The mineral springs of Cauquenes burst forth on a line 

 of dislocation, crossing a mass of stratified rock, the whole 

 of which betrays the action of heat. A considerable quantity 

 of gas is continually escaping from the same orifices with 

 the water. Though the springs are only a few yards apart, 

 they have very different temperatures ; and this appears to 

 be the result of an unequal mixture of cold water : for those 

 with the lowest temperature have scarcely any mineral taste. 

 After the great earthquake of 1822 the springs ceased, and 

 the water did not return for nearly a year. They were also 

 much affected by the earthquake of 1835 ; the temperature 

 being suddenly changed from 1 18° to 92°.* It seems probable 

 that mineral waters rising deep from the bowels of the 

 earth, would always be more deranged by subterranean dis- 

 turbances than those nearer the surface. The man who 

 had charge of the baths, assured me that in summer the 

 water is hotter and more plentiful than in winter. The 

 former circumstance, I should have expected, from the less 

 mixture, during the dry season, of cold water ; but the latter 

 statement appears very strange and contradictory. The 

 periodical increase during the summer, when rain never 

 falls, can, I think, only be accounted for by the melting of 

 the snow ; yet the mountains which are covered by snow 

 during that season, are three or four leagues distant from 

 the springs. I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of my 

 informer, who, having lived on the spot for several years, 

 ought to be well acquainted with the circumstance — which, 

 if true, certainly is very curious ; for we must suppose that 

 the snow-water, being conducted through porous strata to 

 the regions of heat, is a^ain thrown up to the surface by the 

 line of dislocated and injected rocks at Cauquenes ; and the 

 regularity of the phenomenon would seem to indicate, that 

 in this district heated rock occurred at a depth not very 

 great. 



* Caiddeugh, in " Philosoph. Transact." or ji!V|& 



