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where there is a pass called the Portillo, little practised, because the 

 sides are so steep as to afford no escape from the avalanches that con- 

 tinually roll down from above. It is, however, shorter than that by 

 the Cumbre, and is often passable when the latter is not. I am told 

 that the scenery in that deep valley, where the rapid flood breaks its 

 way over a rugged bed, and makes frequent falls, is truly sublime ; and 

 were the season favourable, I should be tempted to go half a day's 

 journey into it. The passage of the Maypu is exceedingly dangerous 

 during the floods, and must be at times impassable, if I may judge by 

 the depth of the banks on either side, which cannot be much less than 

 forty feet ; and the space between them must be nearly a quarter of a 

 mile. Within this great bed the river now divides itself into several 

 channels, which are all easily forded, the main branch indeed being 

 deep and rapid : over this there is a bridge of the ancient Indian 

 construction, which is used when the river is not fordable. It con- 

 sists of upright poles, fixed at both sides of the stream ; and across 

 these thongs of hide are stretched, and these again interlaced with 

 others, so as to make a swinging bridge, suspended now as it seems 

 in mid air. This simple bridge is removed during the great floods, 

 and replaced as soon as the ordinary passage is opened. On the 

 north side of the river there is not a tree, and the eye ranges over 

 an immense space without a rising ground of any kind ; on the south 

 side the country is richer, and more cultivated, particularly at 

 Viluco ; near which is the village and the chapel of Maypu, the parish 

 church of an immense district. Viluca is an estate belonging to the 

 Marques la Rayna, one of the richest men in Chile : it is worth about 

 25,000 dollars a year, and is in a high state of cultivation ; a wall two 

 full leagues in length separates it from the road, and I was really 

 weary of it. The walls for enclosures here are formed of clay beaten 

 hard into wooden frames fixed on the spot, and removed when filled 

 to the end of the former piece, and filled again ; so that when it is 

 done, the wall looks as if of giant bricks. At length we came to a 

 piece of bad muddy road on the banks of the little river Paine, which 



