2J2 
CENTRAL CHILE 
CHAP. 
little coves and bays ; and here and there a solitary hillock 
peeping up showed that it had formerly stood there as an 
islet The contrast of these flat valleys and basins with the 
irregular mountains gave the scenery a character which to me 
was new and very interesting. 
From the natural slope to seaward of these plains, they 
are very easily irrigated, and in consequence singularly fertile. 
Without this process the land would produce scarcely anything, 
for during the whole summer the sky is cloudless. The 
mountains and hills are dotted over with bushes and low trees, 
and excepting these the vegetation is very scanty. Each 
landowner in the valley possesses a certain portion of hill- 
country, where his half-wild cattle, in considerable numbers, 
manage to find sufficient pasture. Once every year there is a 
grand “ rodeo,” when all the cattle are driven down, counted, 
and marked, and a certain number separated to be fattened in 
the irrigated fields. Wheat is extensively cultivated, and a 
good deal of Indian corn : a kind of bean is, however, the 
staple article of food for the common labourers. The orchards 
produce an overflowing abundance of peaches, figs, and grapes. 
With all these advantages the inhabitants of the country ought 
to be much more prosperous than they are. 
1 6th .—The mayor-domo of the Hacienda was good enough 
to give me a guide and fresh horses ; and in the morning we 
set out to ascend the Campana, or Bell Mountain, which is 
6400 feet high. The paths were very bad, but both the geology 
and scenery amply repaid the trouble. We reached, by the 
evening, a spring called the Agua del Guanaco, which is 
situated at a great height. This must be an old name, for it 
is very many years since a guanaco drank its waters. During 
the ascent I noticed that nothing but bushes grew on the 
northern slope, whilst on the southern slope there was a bamboo 
about fifteen feet high. In a few places there were palms, and 
I was surprised to see one at an elevation of at least 4500 
feet. These palms are, for their family, ugly trees. Their 
stem is very large, and of a curious form, being thicker in the 
middle than at the base or top. They are excessively numerous 
in some parts of Chile, and valuable on account of a sort of 
treacle made from the sap. On one estate near Petorca they 
tried to count them, but failed, after having numbered several 
