417 



1500 toises high. Corcovado, placed on the 

 coast of the continent, opposite the southern 

 extremity of the island of Chiloe, appears to be 

 more than 1950 toises high ; it is perhaps, the 

 loftiest summit of the whole globe, south of the 

 parallel of 42° south latitude. On the north of 

 San Carlos de Chiloe, in the whole length of 

 Chili to the desart of Atacama, the low western 

 regions not having been overwhelmed by the 

 floods, the Andes there appear farther from the 

 coast. The Abb6 Molina % always positive in 

 what is doubtful, affirms that the Cordilleras of 

 Chili, form three parallel chains, of which the in- 

 termediary is the most elevated ; but to prove 

 that this division is far from general, it suffices 

 to recollect the barometric survey made by 

 MM. Bauza and Espinosa, in 1794, between 

 Mendoza and Santiago de Chili. The road 

 which leads from one of those towns to the 

 other, rises by degrees from 700 to 1987 toises ; 

 and after passing the col des Andes {La Cumbre, 

 between the houses of refuge called Las Cala- 

 veras and Las Cuevas), it descends continually 

 as far as the temperate valley of Santiago de 

 Chili, of which the bottom is only 409 toises 

 above the level of the Ocean. The same sur- 

 vey has made known to us the minimum of 



* Saggio, p. 4, 38, 48. Compared with the manmcripU 

 of M. Nee, botanist of the Malaspina expedition, 



2 f 2 



