CHa ran ht XLT. 
GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON CHILL 
Tue Andes are the prominent feature in the Chilian landscape. 
From the harbour of Valparaiso, the eye passes rapidly from ridge to 
ridge over the foreground of the scene, but is detained in lengthened 
gaze by the sublimity of the snowy summits which bound the field of 
vision. Many of the nearer heights, rising from one to ten thousand 
feet, would give grandeur to most other regions, though here they 
are but undulations of the surface at the base of the great chain. In 
the view of the Cordilleras, the attention becomes finally concentrated 
upon a single conical summit, the Bell of Aconcagua, standing behind 
the main range; it towers above the lesser heights to an altitude of 
twenty-three thousand feet, and even in summer is covered with 
snows half-way to its base. 
The little attention which we were able to give this region of 
ancient and modern fires was confined to a study of the granitic rocks 
of the coast, and a rapid examination of the geological structure of the 
country in two trips to the mountains, one by Santiago and the other 
by Aconcagua.* 
General Features of the Country on the Routes Examined. 
The coast along the Bay of Valparaiso, and far to the north and 
south, is generally formed of a cliff from seventy-five to three hundred 
* The writer visited none of the mines of Chili, excepting a single one in the Jaguel 
Valley, where a few hours only were spent. On the subject of the rise of the Chilian 
coast, as he saw the coast only at Valparaiso, no new observations were made. The 
mountains were ascended near Santiago by a single route to a height of twelve thousand 
feet, and near San Felipe de Aconcagua, to a height of four thousand feet. 
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