364 



VALDIVIA. 



Feb. 1835. 



deep in the ground : the operation is performed in the ear- 

 liest part of the spring. During the succeeding summer, the 

 stump throws out very long shoots, and sometimes even 

 bears fruit. I was shown one which had produced as many 

 as twenty-three apples, but this was thought very unusual. 

 The ensuing summer, the first year shoots throw out others, 

 and by the third season the stump is changed (as I have 

 myself seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with an 

 abundance of fruit. I understand there is one kind of apple- 

 tree in England, which can be treated in a similar manner ; 

 but I believe the rapidity of growth, and at the same time 

 production of fruit, is very inferior to that of the trees in 

 Chiloe. An old man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, 



Necessidad es la madre del invencion,^^ by giving an ac- 

 count of the several useful things he manufactured from his 

 apples. After making cider, he extracted from the refuse a 

 white and very finely-flavoured spirit : by another process he 

 procured a sweet treacle, or, as he called it, honey. He like- 

 wise showed us wine derived from the same fruit. The 

 children and pigs seemed almost to live, during this season of 

 the year, in the orchards. 



February 11th. — I set out with a guide on a short ride, 

 in which, however, I managed to see singularly little, either 

 of the geology of the country, or of its inhabitants. There 

 is not much cleared land near Valdivia : after crossing a river 

 at the distance of a few miles, we entered the forest, and then 

 passed only one miserable hovel, before reaching our sleeping- 

 place for the night. The short difference in latitude, of 150 

 miles, has given another aspect to the forest, compared to 

 that of Chiloe. This is owing to a slightly different pro- 

 portion in the kinds of trees. The evergreens do not appear 

 to be quite so numerous ; and the forest in consequence is 

 coloured by a brighter and more lively green. In the same 

 manner as in Chiloe, the lower parts are matted together by 

 canes. Here also another kind of the same family (resembling 

 the bamboo of Brazil, and about twenty feet in height), grows 

 in clusters, and ornaments the banks of some of the streams 



