XIV 
VALDIVIA 
3i9 
orchard. I have never seen any country, where apple-trees 
appeared to thrive so well as in this damp part of South 
America: on the borders of the roads there were many young 
trees evidently self-sown. In Chiloe the inhabitants possess a 
marvellously short method of making an orchard. At the 
lower part of almost every branch, small, conical, brown, 
wrinkled points project : these are always ready to change into 
roots, as may sometimes be seen, where any mud has been 
accidentally splashed against the tree. A branch as thick as a 
man’s thigh is chosen in the early spring, and is cut off just 
beneath a group of these points ; all the smaller branches are 
lopped off, and it is then placed about two feet deep in the 
ground. During the ensuing summer the stump throws out 
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. In the third season the stump is 
changed (as I have myself seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded 
with fruit An old man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, 
“ Necesidad es la madre del invencion,” by giving an account 
of the several useful things he manufactured from his apples. 
After making cider, and likewise wine, he extracted from the 
refuse a white and finely flavoured spirit ; by another process 
he procured a sweet treacle, or, as he called it, honey. His 
children and pigs seemed almost to live, during this season of 
the year, in his orchard. 
February 1 itk -—-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 a new aspect to the forest, compared with that of 
Chiloe. This is owing to a slightly different proportion in the 
kinds of trees. The evergreens do not appear to be quite so 
numerous ; and the forest in consequence has a brighter tint. 
As in Chiloe, the lower parts are matted together by canes : 
here also another kind (resembling the bamboo of Brazil and 
about twenty feet in height) grows in clusters, and ornaments 
the banks of some of the streams in a very pretty manner. It 
