2 



DESCRIPTIVE OUTLINE 



of them with water; by the gradual melting of 

 the snow they are both irrigated exactly in propor- 

 tion to their wants ; and vegetation, instead of being 

 exhausted by the burning sun of summer, is thus 

 nourished and supported by the very heat which 

 threatened to destroy it. 



The water, however, which flows through Chili 

 towards the Pacific, is confined in its whole course, 

 and forces its way through a country as moun- 

 tainous as the highlands of Scotland or Switzer- 

 land. The water which descends from the east 

 side of the Cordillera meanders through a vast 

 plain nine hundred miles in breadth ; and at the 

 top of the Andes, it is singular to observe on the 

 right and left the snow of one storm, part of which 

 is decreed to rush into the Pacific, while the other 

 is to add to the distant waves of the Atlantic. 



The great plain, or Pampas, on the east of the 

 Cordillera, is about nine hundred miles in breadth, 

 and the part which I have visited, though under 

 the same latitude, is divided into regions of dif- 

 ferent climate and produce. On leaving Buenos 

 Aires, the first of these regions is covered for one 

 hundred and eighty miles with clover and thistles ; 



