314 



CHILE. 



Aug. 1834. 



masses. As this is an observation in which one would be 

 very apt to be deceived^ I doubted its accuracy^ until ascend- 

 ing Mount Wellington^ near Hobart Town. The summit 

 of that mountain is similarly composed^ and similarly shat- 

 tered ; but all the blocks appeared as if they had been hurled 

 into their present position thousands of years ago. 



We spent the day on the summit^ and I never enjoyed 

 one more thoroughly. Chile^ bounded by the Andes and 

 the Pacific, was seen as in a map. The pleasure from the 

 scenery, in itself beautiful, was heightened by the many 

 reflections which arose from the mere view of the grand 

 range, with its lesser parallel ones, and of the broad valley 

 of Quillota directly intersecting the latter. Who can 

 avoid admiring the wonderful force which has upheaved 

 these mountains, and even more so the countless ages which 

 it must have required, to have broken through, removed, and 

 levelled whole masses of them ? It is well in this case to 

 call to mind the vast shingle and sedimentary beds of Pata- 

 gonia, which, if heaped on the Cordillera, would increase 

 by so many thousand feet its height. When in that 

 country, I v/ondered how any mountain-chain could have 

 supplied such masses, and not have been utterly obliterated. 

 We must not now reverse the wonder, and doubt whether 

 all-powerful time can grind down mountains — even the 

 gigantic Cordillera — into gravel and mud. 



The appearance of the Andes was different from that which 

 I had expected. The lower line of the snow was of course 

 horizontal, and to this line the even summits of the range 

 seemed quite parallel. Only at long intervals a mass of 

 points, or a single cone, showed where a volcano had existed, 

 or does now exist. Hence the range resembled a great solid 

 wall, surmounted here and there by a tower, and thus made 

 a most complete barrier to the country. 



Almost every part of the hill has been drilled by attempts 

 to open gold-mines. I was surprised to see, on the actual 

 summit, which could only be reached by climbing, a 

 small pit, where some yellowish crystals of hypersthene had 



