PHYSICAL FEATUEES OF CHILI. 



415 



times called the Cumbre Tglesia, to distinguish it from another 500 feet higher, 

 which lies farther south, and which couriers often follow in winter because fi-ee 

 from snow. According to Giissfeldt, the lowest and most frequented pass, where 

 the railway tunnel is to be cut, stands at an elevation of 12,340 feet. A number 

 of casuchas, or shelters, where the navvies keep their tools, and where the 

 wayfarers take refuge from snowstorms, have been constructed at intervals 

 along the rout-e, which is not diflBcult, rising in a series of terraces to the highest 

 point. 



Above the border range between the Chilian slope and the Cuyo, the 

 ^'Argentine Piedmont," rises Mount Juncal (a name common enough in Chilian 



Fig. 157. — Casucha del Poetillo, on the Cumbee. 



geographical nomenclature), which, although falling below 19,700 feet, is important 

 as the knot whence a lateral ridge ramiiies west and north-west to the Chacabuco 

 Pass (4,220 feet). Here is the northern limit of the great longitudinal plain of 

 Ohili, where is situated Santiago, capital of the republic. 



South of Juncal follows snowy Tupungato, a mountain of volcanic origin 

 20,286 feet high. At its southern base lies the Portillo de los Piuquenes Pass 

 (13,780 feet), so named from the species of herbage clothing the flanks of the 

 neighbouring hills and the shores of a lakelet on the Chilian slope. It also takes 



