Aug. 1834. CHILE. 311 



work valley the more pleasing. Whoever called " Valpa- 

 raiso" the " Valley of Paradise,'" must have been thmking 

 of Quillota. We crossed over to the Hacienda de San Isidoro, 

 situated at the very foot of the Bell mountain. 



Chile, as may be seen in the maps, is a narrow strip of 

 land between the Cordillera and the Pacific ; and this strip is 

 itself traversed by several mountain-lines, which in this part 

 run parallel to the great range. Between these outer lines, 

 and the main Cordillera, a succession of level basins, gene- 

 rally opening into each other by narrow passages, extend far 

 to the southward. In these the principal towns are situated, 

 as San Felipe, Santiago, S. Fernando. These basins or plains, 

 together with the transverse flat valleys (like that of Quillota) 

 which connect them with the coast, I have little doubt, are the 

 bottoms of ancient inlets and deep bays, such as at the present 

 day intersect every part of Tierra del Fuego, and the west 

 coast of Patagonia. Chile must formerly have resembled the 

 latter country, in the configuration of its land and water. 

 This resemblance was occasionally seen with great force, 

 when a level fog-bank covered, as with a mantle, all the 

 lower parts of the country : the white vapour curling into the 

 ravines, beautifully represented little coves and bays ; and 

 here and there a solitary hillock peeping up, showed that it 

 had formerly stood there as an islet. The contrast of these 

 flat valleys and basins with the irregular mountains, gave the 

 scenery a character which to me was novel and very inte- 

 resting. 



From the natural slope to seav/ard of these plains, they 

 are very easily irrigated, and in consequence singularly 

 fertile. Without this process the land would produce 

 scarcely any thing ; for during the whole summer the sky 

 is cloudless. The mountains and hills are dotted over 

 with bushes and low trees, and excejjting these, the vege- 

 tation is very scanty. Each landowner in the valley pos- 

 sesses a certain portion of hill-country, where his half- 

 wild cattle, in considerable numbers, manage to find suffi- 

 cient pastui-e. Once every year there is a grand " rodeo," 



