1&J4.] THE VALLEY OF QUILLOTA. 243 



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. 



15th. We returned towards the valley of Quiilota. 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 

 Quiilota 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 Quiilota. 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 laud 

 between the Cordillera and the Pacific; and this strip is itself 

 traversed by several mountain-lines, which in this part run 

 parallel to the great range. Between these oiiter 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 Quiilota) 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 

 Fuego and the western coast. Chile must formerly have resembled 

 the latter country in the configuration of its land and water. The 

 resemblance was occasionally shown strikingly when a level fog- 

 bank covered, as with a mantle, all the lower parts of the country : 

 the white vapour curling into the ravines, beautifully represented 

 little coves and bays ; and here and there a solitary hillock peeping 



