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Show 322 CrTILE. Sept. 1834. rain never falls, can, I think, only be accounted for by the melting of the snow: yet the mountains which are covered by snow during that season are three or four leagues distant from the springs. I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of my informer, vvho having lived on the spot for several years, ought to be well acquainted with the circumstance,which, if true, certainly is very curious: for, we must suppose that the water, being conducted through porous strata to the regions of heat, is · again thrown up to the surface by the line of dislocated and injected rock at Cauquenes; and the regularity of the phenomenon would seem to indicate that in this district heated rock occurred at a depth not excessively great. One day I rode up the valley to the furthest inhabited spot. Shortly above that point, the Cachapual divides into two deep tremendous ravines, which penetrate directly into the great range. I scrambled up a peaked mountain, probably more than six thousand feet high. Here, as indeed every where else, scenes of the highest interest presented themselves. It was by one of these ravines that Pincheira entered Chile, and ravaged the neighbouring country. This is the same man whose attack on an estancia at the Rio Negro I have described. He was a renegade half-cast Spaniard, who collected a great body of Indians together, and established himself by a stream in the Pampas, which place none of the forces sent after him could ever discover. From this point he used to sally forth, and crossing the Cordillera by passes hitherto unattempted, he ravaged the farm-houses, and drove the cattle to his secret rendezvous. Pincheira was a capital horseman, and he made all around him equally good, for he invariably shot any one who hesitated to follow hi:U. It was against this man, and other wandering Indian tnbes, that Rosas waged the war of extermination. .s~~TEMBER 13Tn.-We left the baths of Cauquenes, and reJOimng the main road, slept at the Rio Claro. ' From this place we rode to the town of S. Fernando. Before arriving there, the last basin had expanded into a great plain, which Sept. 1834. FLOATING ISLANDS. 323 extended so far to the south, that the snowy summits of the more distant Andes were seen, as if above the horizon of the sea. S. Fernando is forty leagues from Santiago; and it was my furthest point southward ; for we here turned at right angles towards the coast. We slept at the gold-mines of Y aquil, which are worked by Mr. Nixon, an American gentleman, to whose kindness I was much indebted during the four days I staid at his house. SEPTEMBER 14TH.-This morning we rode to the mines, which are situated at the· distance of some leagues, near the summit of a lofty hill. On the way we had a glimpse of the lake Tagua-tagua, celebrated for its floating islands, which have been described by M. Gay.* They are composed of the stalks of various dead plants intertwined together, and on the surface of which other living ones take root. Their form is generally circular, and their thickness from four to six feet, of which the greater part is immersed in the water. As the wind blows they pass from one side of the lake to the other, and often carry cattle and horses as passengers. When we arrived at the mine, I was struck by the pale appearance of many of the men, and inquired from Mr. Nixon respecting their condition. The mine is 450 f.eet deep, and each man brings up about 200 poundst weight of stone. With this load they have to climb up the alternate notches cut in the trunks of trees, placed in a zigzag line up the shaft. Even beardless young men, eighteen and twenty years old with little muscular development of their bodies (they are' quite naked excepting drawers) ascend with this .great load from nearly the same depth. A strong man, who IS ~ot accustomed to this labour, perspires most profusely, with merely car~ying up his own body. With this very se~ere labour, they live ~ntirely on boiled beans and bread. 'I hey • Annales des Sciences Naturelles, March, 1833. · M. Gay, a zealous and able natmalist, is now occupied in studying every branch of natural history throughout the kingdom of Chile. . . t In another mine, as will hereafter be mentwned, I p1cked out a load by hazard, and weighed it : it was 197 pounds. y2 |
