376 



ROOTS OF TllEES— MELl-MOYU. 



Jan. 



slaty rocks, extend their roots so horizontally that it is not 

 surprising to find, running through woodland, broad tracts 

 whence the shallow-rooted trees have been swept away, partly 

 by wind, partly by the action of mountain-torrents.* As wood 

 grows even at the water''s edge in those countries, where not 

 exposed to the first attack of wind from seaward, and as there 

 are so many loose overhanging masses of rock, one cannot be 

 surprised at the vast quantities of drift-wood found in some 

 places ; or think it improbable for a quadruped to be occa- 

 sionally precipitated into the sea, with a falling mass of rocks 

 and trees, and afterwards drifted by wind and current to some 

 other locality. 



From Port Low we saw a notable mountain, one of the 

 Cordillera of the Andes, having three points upon a small flat 

 top, about eight thousand feet above the sea. I called it the 

 Trident at that time ; but afterv/ards learned that there are four 

 peaks (one of which was hid by another from our point of view), 

 and that it is called by the aborigines Meli-moyu, which in 

 the Huilli-che language signifies four points. 



Three other remarkable mountains, active volcanoes, are 

 visible from the northern Huaytecas islands, as well as from 

 Childe ; I mean the Corcobado (hump-backed), of which I do 

 not remember the Indian name ; Yanteles (or Yanchinu, which 



* The writer of Anson's voyage, speaking- of Juan Fernandez, exactly 

 describes the loose state of trees in such places, when he says, " The nor- 

 thern part of this island is composed of high, craggy hills, many of them 

 inaccessible, though generally covered with trees. The soil of this part is 

 loose and shallow, so that very large trees on the hills soon perish for 

 want of root, and are then easily overturned, which occasioned the death 

 of one of our sailors ; who being upon the hills, in search of goats, caught 

 hold of a tree upon a declivity, to assist him in his ascent, and this giving 

 way, he immediately rolled down the hill ; and though in his fall he fas- 

 tened on another tree of considerable bulk, yet that, too, gave way, and he 

 fell among the rocks, and was dashed to pieces. Mr. Brett likewise met 

 with an accident, only by resting his back against a tree, near as large 

 about as himself, which stood on a slope ; for the tree giving way, he fell 

 to a considerable distance, though without receiving any injury." — 

 (Anson's V oyage, 8vo. edit., p. 159.) 



