1835] USEFUL APPLES. 297 



branches are lopped off, and it is then placed about two 

 feet deep in the ground. During" the ensuing summer 

 the stump throws out long shoots, and sometimes even 

 bears fruit : I was shown one which had produced as 

 many as twenty-tree apples, but this was thought very 

 unusual. In the third season the stump is changed (as 

 I have myself seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with 

 fruit. An old man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, 

 " Necesidad es la madre del invencion," by giving an 

 account of the several useful things he manufactured from 

 his apples. After making cider, and likewise wine, he 

 extracted from the refuse a white and finely flavoured 

 spirit ; by another process he procured a sweet treacle, 

 or, as he called it, honey. His children and pigs seemed 

 almost to live, during this season of the year, in his orchard. 



February nth. — I set out with a guide on a short ride, 

 in which, however, I managed to see singularly little, 

 either of the geology of the country or of its inhabitants. 

 There is not much cleared land near Valdivia : after 

 crossing a river at the distance of a few miles, we entered 

 the forest, and then passed only one miserable hovel, before 

 reaching our sleeping-place for the night. The short 

 difference in latitude of 150 miles has given a new aspect 

 to the forest, compared with that of Chiloe. This is 

 owing to a slightly different proportion in the kinds of 

 trees. The evergreens do not appear to be quite so 

 numerous ; and the forest in consequence has a brighter 

 tint. As in Chiloe, the lower parts are matted together 

 by canes : here also another kind (resembling the bamboo 

 of Brazil and about twenty feet in height) grows in clusters, 

 and ornaments the banks of some of the streams in a 

 very pretty manner. It is with this plant that the Indians 

 make their chuzos, or long tapering spears. Our resting- 

 house was so dirty that I preferred sleeping outside : on 

 these journeys the first night is generally very uncomfort- 

 able, because one is not accustomed to the tickling and 

 biting of the fleas. I am sure, in the morning, there 

 was not a space on my legs of the size of a shilling, which 

 had not its little red mark where the flea had feasted. 



February \2th. — We continued to ride through the 

 imcleared forest; only occasionally meeting an Indian 

 on horseback, or a troop of fine mules bringing alerce 

 planks and corn from the southern plains. In the after- 

 noon one of the horses knocked up ; we were then on a 



