378 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



poorer part of the population. In the Channels trees were 

 rather in excess ; but here, wherever we directed our 

 gaze around the sides of the bay, we beheld an entire 

 destitution of vegetation higher than low shrubs, with the 

 exception of a very few trees in the gardens of some houses 

 situated near the top of one of the hills, the Cerro Allegro, 

 and which we afterwards learned were chiefly tenanted by 

 English merchants. But if there is little that is interesting 

 or attractive in the immediate vicinity of the city, there is 

 amply sufficient in the distant prospect to satisfy the observer's 

 sense of wonder and beauty ; for on casting the eye eastward 

 on a clear day, he will see the horizon bounded by the snow- 

 clad range of the Andes, including the magnificent precipitous 

 mass of Aconcagua, upwards of 23,000 feet in height, and 

 generally regarded as the highest mountain of the ISTew 

 World. We were favoured with a large amount of clear 

 weather during the earlier part of our stay, and day after day 

 I watched with unabated interest these " silent pinnacles of 

 aged snow," as they stood " sunset-flushed," the tints varying 

 from a delicate pale blush to crimson with blue shadows. 



Undoubtedly the two great drawbacks to Valparaiso, as a 

 port, are the depth of the anchorage and its entire openness 

 towards the north, thus affording no shelter to the shipping 

 during the winter months, when violent northerly gales 

 prevail, producing a very heavy sea in the bay, and fre- 

 quently causing much damage to merchant vessels by driv- 

 ing them on shore. These "northers," as a rule, last from 

 one to three days ; and from our experience of them, I have 

 no hesitation in stating my opinion that, as regards the 

 discomfort they occasion, I would quite as soon be at sea as 

 in port during their continuance. 



There was a considerable amount of merchant shipping 



