CENTRAL CHILE. [CHAP. xti. 



up, showed that it had formerly stood there as au islet. The 

 contrast of these flat valleys and basins with the irregular 

 mountains, gave the scenery a character which to me was new 

 and very interesting. 



From the natural slope to seaward of these plains, they are very 

 easily irrigated, and in consequence singularly fertile. Without 

 this process the laud would produce scarcely anything, for during 

 the whole summer the sky is cloudless. The mountains and hills 

 are dotted over with bushes and low trees, and excepting these the 

 vegetation is very scanty. Each landowner in the valley possesses 

 a certain portion of hill-country, where his half-wild cattle, in 

 considerable numbers, manage to find sufficient pasture. Once 

 every year there is a grand " rodeo," when all the cattle are driven 

 down, counted, and marked, and a certain number separated to be 

 fattened in the irrigated fields. Wheat is extensively cultivated, 

 and a good deal of Indian corn : a kind of bean is, however, the 

 staple article of food for the common labourers. The orchards 

 produce an overflowing abundance of peaches, figs, and grapes. 

 With all these advantages, the inhabitants of the country ought to 

 be much more prosperous than they are. 



IGfh. The mayor-domo of the Hacienda was good enough to 

 give me a guide and fresh horses ; and in the morning we set out 

 to ascend the Campana, or Bell Mountain, which is 6400 feet high. 

 The paths were very bad, but both the geology and scenery amply 

 repaid the trouble. We reached, by the evening, a spring called 

 the Agua del Guanaco, which is situated at a great height. This 

 must be an old name, for it is very many years since a guauaco 

 drank its waters. During the ascent I noticed that nothing but 

 bushes grew on the northern slope, whilst on the southern slope 

 there was a bamboo about fifteen feet high. In a few places there 

 were palms, and I was surprised to see one at an elevation of at 

 least 4500 feet. These palms are, for their family, ugly trees. 

 Their stem is very large, and of a curious form, being thicker in 

 the middle than at the base or top. They are excessively numerous 

 in some parts of Chile, and valuable on account of a sort of treacle 

 made from the sap. On one estate near Petorca they tried to count 

 them, but failed, after having numbered several hundred thousand. 

 Every year in the early spring, in August, very many are cut 

 down, and when the trunk is lying on the ground, the crown of 

 leaves is lopped off. The sap then immediately begins to flow from 



