286 VALDIVIA. [CHAP. xiv. 



apples. After making cider, aud 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 llth. 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 Jong taper- 

 ing spears. Our resting-house was so dirty that I preferred sleeping 

 outside : on these journeys the first night is generally very un- 

 comfortable, 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. 



12/i. "We continued to ride through the uncleared 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 afternoon one of the horses knocked up : we were then on 

 a brow of a hill, which commanded a fine view of the Llanos. The 

 view of these open plains was very refreshing, after being hemmed 

 in and buried in the wilderness of trees. The uniformity of a forest 

 soon becomes very wearisome. This west coast makes me remember 

 with pleasure the free, unbounded plains of Patagonia ; yet, with 

 the true spirit of contradiction, I cannot forget how sublime is the 

 silence of the forest. The Llanos are the most fertile and thickly 

 peopled parts of the country, as they possess the immense 

 advantage of being nearly free from trees. Before leaving the 

 forest we crossed some flat little lawns, around which single trees 



