CHILI. 193 
On leaving Quillota they passed through the " Calle Largo," and 
took the southern side of the valley, passing along the foot of the 
Mellacca hill, a smooth and rounded elevation, about three hundred 
feet in height, and a mile and a half in circumference. This hill is 
covered with a thin soil, from the decomposition of its own rocks. 
The valley now narrows, and in some places is not over a few hun- 
dred feet in width. At about a league from Quillota, they ascended 
a cuesta of the Quillota ridge, one thousand feet above the plain. 
On its top, they were much gratified with the beautiful prospect. 
The fruitful plain or vega of Aconcagua, varying in width from one 
to six miles, extends to the west some twenty miles to the ocean, and 
is lost in the other direction in the mountains ; it is watered by pure 
streams, and covered with farm-houses and hamlets, surrounded by 
trees and vineyards. To the northeast are the Andes, heaped as it 
were on each other, until the towering and distant peak of Tupon- 
gati, with its giant form, crowns the whole. One feature of the plain 
was peculiar : the mountains seemed to sink into it as if it was the 
ocean itself. In some cases the line was so well defined, that one 
foot could be placed on the plain, and the other on the base of a 
mountain, rising six or seven thousand feet high. The sketch will 
give a better idea of it than any description. The distance of Tupon- 
gati is about forty leagues. 
Captains King and Fitzroy have made the height of this peak 
several hundred feet above Chimborazo. The surrounding moun- 
tains, though from ten to twelve thousand feet high and much nearer, 
vol. i. 49 
