136 



CHILI. 



leagues in the interior. The day was well advan- 

 ced before we started, and we pursued our way at 

 a rapid pace over the great plain of Santiago, ap- 

 parently a dead flat ; but which we discovered, 

 upon looking back at the city, to have a consi- 

 derable though very gradual ascent : so that we 

 were now several hundred feet above the highest 

 churches, without having perceived that we had 

 been rising. 



In a country the character of which is quite new, 

 we are always liable to err in the ideas we form of 

 the scenery around us. Amongst the Andes this 

 is particularly the case; for the scale of every thing 

 is so great, that our previous conceptions are un- 

 equal to grasp the scene before us, and we run al- 

 most necessarily into mistakes respecting heights 

 and distances, which nothing but experience can 

 rectify. It is not at first that one is conscious of 

 the deception ; and the interest of a journey, made 

 under such circumstances, is greatly heightened by 

 the growing conviction that our senses are unequal 

 to the task of duly estimating what is before us — 

 the reality, in short, on these occasions, often out- 

 strips the imagination. 



