958 CHILLI 
feet high, above which the land rises to a much greater elevation. 
These cliffs are composed of granite, gneiss, or syenite, and form 
a rugged, broken shore. Where the valleys terminate on the sea, 
the cliffs are interrupted by sand or shingle beaches, some of which 
are three to five miles long, and are intersected by the mouths of 
streams. It is not unusual, however, for these streams to become 
dry by absorption into the sand several rods from the sea. 
Leaving Valparaiso,—which is situated on a narrow strip of land 
edging the sea and forming the shores of a small, shallow bay,—the 
land rises rapidly from the top of the first elevation or cliff, and 
reaches soon an altitude of a thousand feet. The slopes thus enclose 
an extensive amphitheatre, the bottom of which is occupied by the 
city and bay. Numerous valleys extend down from the summit, 
which alternate with flattened ridges. 
After gaining the ascent back of Valparaiso, (called the cwesta or 
ridge of Valparaiso,) and passing over a few miles of undulating 
country, we reach an open plain, which continues eastward, or a little 
south of east, for thirty miles, over which the road to Santiago passes, 
scarcely deviating from a straight line. ‘Some ten or fifteen miles to 
the southward and eastward, the country is much intersected by 
rounded hills and ridges; and to the north, the region appeared to 
have a similar broken character. ‘Thirty miles to the north, stands 
the Campana or Bell of Quillota, a nautical landmark, estimated at 
nine thousand feet in height. 
A high mountain ridge, the Cuesta de Zapata, situated forty miles 
from Valparaiso, interrupts the straight and level road, and separates 
the region passed over, from a second level, which is of similar cha- 
racter, though confined within narrower limits by the mountains on 
either side. Sixty miles from Valparaiso, a still loftier ridge inter- 
sects the country, called the Cuesta de Prado. Beyond it, after pass- 
ing over a few miles of irregular hills, we reach the great plain of 
Santiago, thirty miles wide, lying at the base of the Andes. This 
plain, as has been ascertained by a series of barometrical observations, 
is situated one thousand seven hundred and fifty feet above the sea, 
which gives an average rise of twenty feet to the mile; or, if we 
take off the first rise of one thousand feet, directly back of Valparaiso, 
and consequently near the coast, the average will be but nine feet to 
the mile. This inner valley or plain upon which Santiago is situa- 
ted, extends both north and south, varying its breadth at intervals ; 
