240 JOURNAL. 
where there is a pass called the Portillo, little practised, because the 
sides are so steep as to afford no escape from the avalanches that con- 
tinually roll down from above. It is, however, shorter than that by _ 
the Cumbre, and is often passable when the latter is not. I am told — 
that the scenery in that deep valley, where the rapid flood breaks its 
way over a rugged bed, and makes frequent falls, is truly sublime ; and 
were the season favourable, I should be tempted to go half a day’s 
journey into it. The passage of the Maypu is exceedingly dangerous 
during the floods, and must be at times impassable, if I may judge by 
the depth of the banks on either side, which cannot be much less than 
forty feet; and the space between them must be nearly a quarter of a 
mile. Within this great bed the river now divides itself into several 
channels, which are all easily forded, the main branch indeed being 
deep and rapid: over this there is a bridge of the ancient Indian 
construction, which is used when the river is not fordable. It con- 
sists of upright poles, fixed at both sides of the stream; and across 
these thongs of hide are stretched, and these again interlaced with 
others, so as to make a swinging bridge, suspended now as it seems 
in mid air. This simple bzidge is removed during the great floods, 
and replaced as soon as the ordinary passage is opened. On the 
north side of the river there is not a tree, and the eye ranges over 
an immense space without a rising ground of any kind; on the south 
side the country is richer, and more cultivated, particularly at 
Viluco ; near which is the village and the chapel of Maypu, the parish 
church of an immense district. Viluca is an estate belonging to the 
Marques la Rayna, one of the richest men in Chile: it is worth about 
25,000 dollars a year, and is in a high state of cultivation ; a wall two 
full leagues in length separates it from the road, and I was really 
weary of it. The walls for enclosures here are formed of clay beaten 
hard into wooden frames fixed on the spot, and removed when filled 
to the end of the former piece, and filled again; so that when it is 
done, the wall looks as if of giant bricks. At length we came to a 
piece of bad muddy road on the banks of the little river Painé, which 
