2:16 ( EXTRA L CHILE. [ciiAi>. XIT. 



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 ascend- 

 ing Mount Wellington, in Van Dienien's Laud, 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 

 if 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 wliich 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 sedi- 

 mentary 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 moiintains 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 hori- 

 zontal, 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 unexarnined. I spent the evening as before, talking round 

 the fire with my two companions. The Guasbs of Chile, who 

 correspond to the Gauchos of the Pampas, are, however, a very 

 different set of beings. Chile is the more civilized of the two 

 countries, and the inhabitants, in consequence, have lost much 

 individual character. Gradations in rank are much more strongly 



