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Show 312 CHILE. Aug. 1834. 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 also 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. AuGUST 16TH.-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 has drunk its waters. During the ascent I noticed that nothing grew on the northern slope but bushes, whilst on the southern there was a sort of 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 hundred thousand. Every year in August (early spring time) very many are cut down, and when the trunk is lying on the ground, the ~rown of leaves is lopped off. The sap then immediately begms to flow from the upper end, and continues so doing for some months: it is, however, necessary that a thin slice should be shaved off from that end every morning, so as to expose a fresh surface. A good tree will give ninety gallons, and all this must have been contained in the vessels of the apparently dry trunk. It is said that the sap flows much more quickly on those days when the sun is powerful; and likewise, Aug. 181.34. BELL OF QUILLO'r A. 313 that it is absolutely necessary to take care, in cutting down the tree, that it should fall with its head upwards on the side of the hill; for if it falls down the slope, scarcely any sap will flow ; although in that case, one would have thought that the action would have been aided, instead of checked, by the force of gravity. The sap is concentrated by boiling, and is then called treacle, which it very much resembles in taste. We unsaddled our horses near the spring, and prepared to pass the night. The evening was fine, and the atmosphere so clear, that the masts of the vessels at anchor in the bay of Valparaiso, although no less than twenty-six geographical miles distant, could be distinguished clearly, as little black streaks. A ship doubling the point under sail appeared as a bright white speck. Anson expresses much surprise, in his voyage, at the distance his vessels were discovere~ from the coast; but he did not sufficiently allow for the he1ght of the land, and the great transparency of the air. . The setting of the sun was glorious ; the valleys. bemg black, whilst the snowy peaks of the Andes yet retamed a ruby tint. When it was dark, we mad~ a fir~ bene~th a little arbour of bamboos' fried our charqm (or dned strips o. f beef), took our mate, and were quite comfortable. !here 1s an inexpressible charm in thus living in the open au. The evening was calm and still ;-the shrill noise of the mountain bizcacha, and the faint cry of the goatsucker, were only occasionally to be heard. Besides these, fe:V birds, or even insects, frequent these dry, parched mountams. AuGUST I7'l'H.-In the morning we climbed up the rough mass of greenstone which crowns the summit. This rock, as frequently happens, was much shattered and broken into huge angular fragments. I observed, however, one remarkable circumstance' namely, that many of the. surface·sr presented every degree of freshness-sam~ appearmg ~s 1 broken the day before, whilst on others hchens had e1ther just become, or had long grown, attached. I so fully believed that this was owing to the frequent earthquakes, that I felt inclined to hurry from beneath every pile of the loose |