41 



limits offers incontestible proofs, that the land has 

 been for a long time covered by the ocean ; the three 

 parallel chains of maritime mountains, the hills that 

 unite them with the Andes, in fine, all the ramifica- 

 tions of the latter appear to have been successively 

 formed by the agency of its waters. 



The interior structure of the Andes every where 

 exhibits a very different origin, and appears to be 

 coeval with the creation of the world. This immense 

 mountain, rising abruptly, forms but a small anglè 

 with its base ; its general shape is that of a pyramid, 

 crowned at intervals with conical, and, as it were, 

 crystallized elevations. It is composed of primitive 

 rocks of quartz of an enormous size and almost uni- 

 form configuration, containing no marine substances, 

 which abound in the secondary mountains. On the 

 top of Descabezado, a very lofty mountain in the 



per is occupied by a species of sea-bird, very white, called 

 an y in figure and size resembling a house-pigeon. On the shore of 

 the province of Rancagua, at a short distance from the sea, is a 

 mass of stone, excavated in a similar manner, called by the inha- 

 bitants the church of Rosario^ Grottos and caverns of this sort 

 are very numerous in the Andes, and of great extent. In the 

 mountains near the source of the river Longavi, is a cavern of an 

 oval form, and so large that it will readily admit a man on horse- 

 back ; but what renders this cave particularly remarkable is, that 

 at sunrise, before the summits of the Andes are tinged by its 

 beams, the rays of that luminary, penetrating through some aper- 

 ture, presents to the eye a wonderful phenomenon. In the same 

 range of mountains is, likev/ise^ the celebrated bridge of the Inca, 

 which is nothing but a large mountain, cut through by the river 

 Mendoza. This mountain principally consists of gypsum, and 

 large clusters of beautiful stalactites, formed by the crys- 

 tallization of that substance, are suspended from the arch of the 

 bridge. 



VoL.L H 



