PARALLEL ROADS KEAR COQU1MBO. 



75 



his disappointment with great good-humour ; and 

 even insisted upon carrying us back to his house. 

 At the door we were received by his wife, a native 

 of the place ; while half-a-dozen children, who 

 rushed in a body to the court expecting to meet 

 their brother, could ill dissemble their mortification 

 at seeing only strange faces. But our reception, 

 notwithstanding this disappointment, was hospi- 

 tality itself ; and our kind friends insisted on 

 making up beds for the whole party, although it 

 consisted of five persons. 



We remained at Coquimbo four days, during 

 which our host entertained us with morning and 

 evening parties at his house, and by carrying us 

 round to visit the different families of his ac- 

 quaintance in the place. Though it would be 

 ridiculous to attempt any account of a society in 

 which we passed so short a time, yet there were 

 some traits which, even in that brief acquaintance, 

 were distinguishable as sufficiently characteristic. 

 It is true that, where every object is new, a 

 traveller may be so well pleased, as to render it 

 difficult, in description, to disentangle the transi- 

 tory interest arising out of mere novelty, from 

 the enduring impression which real excellence 

 alone ought to leave. This facility of being pleased, 

 which is the happiness of a traveller, is the mis- 

 fortune of travel-writers ; who sometimes are 

 expected, when strongly or sincerely interested, 

 to give their readers some grounds for their sen- 

 timents and opinions, which it will often be very 

 difficult to do. 



In their manners the Coquimbians are remark- 

 ably unaffected and gentle, and seem habitually 

 well-bred ; but they act more, perhaps, from 

 feelings which lead to general kindness and con- 

 sideration, than from any formal rules of polite- 

 ness. They have as yet had little intercourse 

 with foreigners, for the town lies considerably out 

 of the way, and has never had much commerce. 

 Their climate is delightful ; and the people appeared 

 to be so easy and contented in their circumstances, 

 that we were sometimes inclined to lament the 

 inroad which the progress of civilisation must 

 soon make upon their simple habits. 



On the 18th of November, our friendly host 

 accompanied one of the officers of the Conway 

 and me, in a ride of about twenty-five miles, up 

 the valley of Coquimbo ; during which the most 

 remarkable thing we saw was a distinct series of 

 what are usually called parallel roads, or shelves, 

 lying in horizontal planes along both sides of the 

 valley. They are so disposed as to present exact 

 counterparts of one another, at the same level 

 on opposite sides of the valley : being formed 

 entirely of loose materials, principally water- worn 

 rounded stones, from the size of a nut to that of 

 a man's head. Each of these roads, or shelves, 

 resembles a shingle beach ; and there is every 

 indication of the stones having been deposited at 

 the margin of a lake, which has filled the valley 

 up to those levels. These gigantic roads are at 

 some places half a mile broad, but their general 

 width is from twenty to fifty yards. There are 

 three distinctly characterised sets, and a lower 

 one, which is indistinct when approached, but, 

 when viewed from a distance, is evidently of the 

 same character with the others. Such shelves 

 are improperly called parallel : horizontal would 

 be a more correct term : the planes in which they 



lie are indeed parallel to one another, and thence 

 has arisen the erroneous expression. 



The uppermost shelf or road lies probably three 

 or four hundred feet above the level of the sea, 

 and two hundred and fifty from the bottom of the 

 valley ; the next twenty yards lower ; and the 

 lowest of the distinct set about ten yards still 

 lower. These distances are loosely estimated, 

 and may be wrong ; for it is very difficult to 

 determine heights or distances in a country quite 

 new, and without natural and determinate objects 

 of comparison. There being neither trees, houses, 

 cattle, nor men in this valley, our estimates were 

 made entirely by guess. This, however, does not 

 affect the general question, but only the dimen- 

 sions. When at any time we found ourselves on 

 one of these parallel roads, we saw, upon looking 

 across the valley, or up or down it, as far as the 

 eye could reach, portions of flat spaces, apparently 

 on the same level with that on which we stood ; 

 and when, in order to determine this more exactly, 

 we went over the edge of the road or beach, and 

 brought our eye into the plane of one of the roads, 

 we invariably found, on looking round, that the 

 same plane produced would merge into every 

 portion of the same road ; exactly as we should 

 see the margin of a lake, with all its windings, on 

 a level with the surface, if, while bathing, we 

 brought the eye close to the water and looked 

 round. I regretted not having time to return 

 with a 'spirit-level, to examine accurately this 

 question of horizontality. 



In the centre of the valley, which is six or 

 seven miles wide, there stood an extensive plain, 

 narrow at the upper end, and widening out towards 

 the sea, thus dividing the valley into two parts *. 

 The surface of this insulated space was to all 

 appearance quite flat and horizontal, and, as far 

 as the eye could determine, exactly on a level 

 with the highest of the above-mentioned roads ; 

 so that, if a lake ever stood in this valley, at the 

 level of the upper road, the present surface must 

 have been barely covered, or, as seamen term it, 

 just lipping with the water's edge. It is several 

 miles wide, and shaped like a delta ; its sides are 

 at many places deeply indented with ravines, 

 which enable us to see that it is composed exclu- 

 sively of the same water- worn materials as the 

 roads, which, on both sides, are easily traced at 

 the same levels, and in perfect conformity with 

 those on the opposite banks of the valley. The 

 stones are principally granite and gneiss, with 

 masses of schistus, whinstone, and quartz, mixed 

 indiscriminately, and all bearing marks of having 

 been worn by attrition under water. 



Since the above description of the Coquimbo 

 roads was written, I have had an opportunity of 

 examining the analogous phenomena in Glen Roy, 

 in the Highlands of Scotland. The resemblance 

 between the two cases is not so great as I had 

 been led to suppose from description. In prin- 

 ciple, however, there is not the slightest difference, 

 and the identity of origin seems unquestionable. 

 In the Chilian valley the ground is entirely des- 

 titute of vegetation, while Glen Roy is covered 

 with a thick coating of heath. In the latter, too, 

 the shelves are comparatively narrow, and resemble 

 * It appears from Mr. Darwin's more careful measure- 

 ments, that this valley is not above three or four miles 

 wide. 



