ANDACOLLO — LIMA — PANAMA — JAMAICA. 141 



cheer in the shape of steaks and Bass's XXX stout — 

 things appreciable, particularly at Andacollo. 



At the invitation of Mr. Bennett, a merchant in Val- 

 paraiso, I went to stay a short time at a hacienda of his 

 near Huasco, named the Hacienda de Bellavista. On 

 my arrival at Huasco, the administrator sent a servant 

 with horses for my luggage, and received me himself 

 most hospitably at the farm, distant about one league, 

 and situated near the mouth of the Huasco river. My 

 object was principally to examine the curious terraces 

 mentioned by Darwin in the '^ Voyage of the Beagle.^' 



The port of Huasco itself is a miserable collection of 

 huts and ranches. I think I never saw such a desolate- 

 looking place. Huge masses of rock were tumbled 

 about in the most fantastic shapes, as though a lot of 

 young giants had been playing with them, while at the 

 back towered the barren, the ever- barren hills. In 

 striking contrast to this was the appearance of the 

 hacienda, showing most forcibly the effect of merely a 

 little — the merest apology for — water. At most parts I 

 could have jumped across the Huasco ^^ river,'' and it 

 was nowhere broader than ten yards ; yet this streamlet 

 sufficed to form a green ribbon for ninety miles up the 

 valley, with an average width of half a mile. Nearly 

 all the trees were willows — here taking the place of 

 the poplars in Central Chile ; and, standing at the 

 hacienda, and looking straight up the valley, bordered 

 on either side by the utterly barren hills, and shut in 

 at the end by the snow-clad Cordillera, one could 

 almost fancy it had been created by genii, the contrast 

 was so very remarkable. 



The celebrated terraces are similar to those at Herra- 

 dura, but are on a very much larger scale. Their first 



