352 
that from many fresh seeds which were 
sown in Talcahuano, only two sprung up, 
which shortly afterwards decayed. An 
alpine atmosphere and a severer climate 
than can be expected in the lower tracts of 
the country and, above all, a stony soil, 
seem to be indispensable to its growth. 
In the immediate neighbourhood of Antuco 
not a single tree of Araucaria can be seen, 
and it requires a fatiguing excursion to 
gratify the Naturalist’s desire to behold a 
wood of these truly regal trees. Between 
Antuco and the Fort of Trun Leuvu, runs 
a narrow valley, which being short and full 
of a dense undergrowth, suddenly ascends 
and is connected with the defile through 
which the Rucué flows, a narrow arch 
arising in its middle. A brook that runs 
at the bottom, Quillay Leuvu (the river of 
the Quillayas) gives its name. Accompa- 
nied by a jolly countryman, who had known 
better times, (for the Antucanos used to 
possess large herds,) and who could give 
nearly forgotten and has been untrodden 
r many years. The thick vegetation pre- 
vented us from penetrating into the valley 
on horseback, and we therefore resolved, 
being each of us furnished with a woollen 
coverlet and some provisions, to proceed 
on foot. Such are the hindrances which 
everywhere impede the progress of those 
strangers, who, impelled either by scientific 
motives or by mere curiosity, quit the 
few roads which connect the rare inhabited 
spots inthe Andes. In America the col- 
lector does not obtain his treasures so 
readily as in Europe ; labours and dangers 
here unknown there attend the acquisition 
of perhaps only a few insignificant plants. 
All around the small villages or the solitary 
hut i in which the traveller may have taken 
up abode, stretches a wilderness, 
5 destitute of inhabitants, through which 
= t an accurate knowledge of the 
Tis can enable him to find his way, 
or lead him to a path which may extricate 
him from his difficulties. The native, 
whom his occupation seldom induces to 
4 - LUPUS TEMA p] 
and who feels no curiosity to visit the 
ACCOUNT OF THE ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA OF CHILI. 
forests and uninhabited -defiles of the 
mountains, is mostly unacquainted with 
them and cannot even aid the stranger by 
his descriptions. Thus the difficulty and 
delay, consequent on procuring a guide, 
often compel him to go alone. But if he 
be expert and accustomed to hardships, 
and is acquainted with the peculiarities of 
the country, so as to embolden him to 
venture on such an expedition, then the 
sense of independence and of increased 
self-confidence, arising from his success, 
will soon make him forget all the dis- 
agreeable feelings that first assailed him 
on his solitary journey. That he might 
suffer a lingering death and expire of 
starvation in places where no one could 
seek for him, or, seeking, would not find 
him,—that his return may be prevented by 
causes such as these, are thoughts that 
must not dwell upon his mind and which 
indeed seldom come across the traveller 
when he, with great danger, attains the 
summit of a lofty and hitherto unvisited 
rock, or finds his exertions repaid by the 
harvest of new and beautiful things that 
surround him in a deep and dark defile, 
shut out from the sight of all mankind. 
At the lower end of the valley which I : 
have described, a fire had been raging ^. 
and all the trees stood without bark, the — . 
greater part even with half-charred stems. 
The wood itself is much altered by sucha — - 
circumstance; for while its colour and 
compactness are improved for the pur- 
poses of manufacture, it becomes useless 
for fuel and receives the name of Pellin 
(Madera apellinada). Forest conflagra- 
tions often occur, from unknown causes, 
even in the uninhabited districts of the ; 
Andes, and consume every thing, UP to £i 
the elevation where the Chilian Knee- 4 
wood and the dwarf Beech Tree grow, ^ 
near the limits of perpetual snow. After 
such fires, the forest never again throws "E 
lofty stems, but produces only a th 
underwood that envelopes and destroys the 
higher trees that may have escaped. It x 
most curious to observe the new ai 
peculiar vegetation that in all parts 
America succeeds such an occurrence. k 
Pennsylvania the few forests that ^: 
Wi ACA 
