152 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



of the equator ; but in a passing railway train I could 

 not hope to identify ' unfamiliar species. Both here 

 and elsewhere in Chili, I noticed that the quisco is 

 almost confined to the northern or sunny slopes ; 

 while, as Darwin observed, the tall bamboo grass (a 

 Ckusquea) prevails on the shady sides of the hills. 



The summit level, according to Petermann's map, 

 is 43 1 1 feet (13 14 metres) above the sea, and thence- 

 forward there is a continuous gradual slope of the 

 ground towards Santiago. The country shows few 

 signs of population, and the larger part of the surface 

 is left in a state of nature, and used only for pasturage 

 in winter. In this arid region cultivation is nearly 

 confined to the valleys of the streams that descend 

 from the Cordillera. The stony beds of the streams 

 passed by the railway were almost completely dried 

 up, and I think that I saw water in one spot only 

 on the whole way between the Aconcagua and the 

 Mapocho. 



Any want of interest or variety in the nearer land- 

 scape was amply made up by the increasing grandeur 

 of the views of the Cordillera as we approached the 

 capital of Chili, rendered all the more imposing by 

 fresh snow, which extended down to the level of ten 

 or eleven thousand feet. Although it does not include 

 several of the highest summits of the Andes, the range 

 which walls in the province of Santiago to the east 

 is probably the highest continuous portion of the great 

 range ; for in a distance of seventy miles, from near 

 the Uspallata Pass to the Volcano of Maipe, I believe 

 that there is but one narrow gap where the crest of 

 the chain falls below the level of nineteen thousand 



