106 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



4. Chili. 



The course of the Relief inclining gradually towards the land, we 

 found ourselves at noon on the 11th, only "about fifty miles" South of 

 Valparaiso. A calm ensued in the evening. 



The calm continued on the morning of the 12th : at 8 A.M., the fog 

 clearing a little, we discovered the land, seeming only five or six miles 

 distant; and obtained soundings in ''eighty fathoms." The fog, how- 

 ever, soon closed in, and the weather continued calm and foggy through- 

 out the day. 



On the 13th, just before daybreak, every one was called on deck, to 

 witness a glorious and wonderful spectacle. There was darkness all 

 around, except an illuminated network close to the horizon in the 

 East ; this was an outline of the Andes, the peaks exceedingly dimi- 

 nished by the immense distance, but marked out by an attenuated 

 thread of light of the lustre of the sun itself As the sun rose from 

 behind, the vision vanished ; and we sailed onwards for hours under 

 a clear sky, before the land again became visible. 



On the 15th, the Relief entered the slight indentation called the 

 harbor of Valparaiso, situated in "33° S. latitude," and was anchored 

 in front of and under the lee of the city. The vessel remaining 

 there several days, afi:brded time for a journey to the snows of the 

 Andes. 



Face of the country, and geological structure. The coast on 

 either side of the city, with the exception of a sea-beach six miles 

 North and another a like distance South, presented a continuous rocky 

 cliff rising out of the sea, and for the first two hundred to five hun- 

 dred feet in many places inaccessible. The ground beyond rose 

 steeply to the height of some two thousand feet, and then became a 

 table-land ; bearing detached mountains and long parallel mountain- 

 ridges, but preserving much the same average level to the foot of the 

 Andes. These in a vast continuous range rise steeply to a very great 

 elevation; the crest, difficult of access in an uninhabitable neighbor- 

 hood, forming the natural and political boundary of Chili. 



For the first fifty miles from the sea, the rock was observed to be 

 granitic; of the variety termed gneiss, laminated from the more or 

 less preponderance of mica, in other places fine-grained, and sometimes 

 passing into hornblende-rock ; presenting great local variation in its 



