OF SAN PEDRO NOLASCO. 221 



tenances and exhausted frame seemed to assimilate 

 with the scene around them. The view from the 

 eminence on which we stood was magnificent — it 

 was sublime ; but it was, at the same time, so 

 terrific, that one could hardly help shuddering. 



Although it was midsummer, the snow where 

 we stood was, according to the statement made 

 to me by the agent of the mine, from twenty to a 

 hundred-and- twenty feet deep, but blown by the 

 wind into the most irregular forms, while in some 

 places the black rock was visible. Beneath was the 

 river and valley of Maypo, fed by a number of 

 tributary streams, which we, could sec descending 

 like small silver threads down the different ravines. 

 We appeared to have a bird's-eye view of the 

 great chain of the Andes, and we looked down 

 upon a series of pinnacles of indescribable shapes 

 and forms, all covered with an eternal snow. The 

 whole scene around us in every direction was 

 devoid of vegetation, and was a picture of desola- 

 tion, on a scale of magnificence which made it 

 peculiarly awful; and the knowledge that this 

 vast mass of snow, so cheerless in appearance, was 

 created for the use, and comfort, and happiness, 



