230 
VOYAGE TO THE 
by the melted snows. The rivers of Chile are subject to 
two periodical floods in the year, occasioned by the winter 
rains in July and August, and the melting snow in November 
and December, when many of them become for a few T days 
impassable. After a gentle ascent for about four miles, we 
came to an extensive plain covered with brushwood, and ren¬ 
dered disagreeable by the sharp loose stones which lie thickly 
scattered over it. The parallel roads, mentioned by Captain 
Hall, are very visible in the distance; but, on approaching 
them, we found them to be only spaces disencumbered of 
shrubs, and strewed over with stones of all dimensions ; 
hence we had an extensive and beautiful view of the vale of 
Coquimbo to the sea. 
We now entered the mountain track, and nothing could 
be more monotonously horrid than the road. We went 
through dismal ravines for many miles, and experienced a 
feverish longing to be at our journey’s end. At length we 
emerged from the sunken roads we had followed, and there 
a grand, though gloomy, prospect lay before us. Deep 
dreary valleys branched out in various directions beneath 
our feet, hemmed in by the gigantic Cordillera, in all the 
savage grandeur of total solitude. 
At length, at five o’clock, we reached the mine. This 
is a broad mountain, over the face of which are scattered a 
