8th. - We left the valley of the Aconcagua, by which we
had descended, and reached in the evening a cottage near the
Villa del St. Rosa. The fertility of the plain was delightful:
the autumn being advanced, the leaves of many of the
fruit-trees were falling; and of the labourers, - some were
busy in drying figs and peaches on the roofs of their cottages,
while others were gathering the grapes from the vineyards.
It was a pretty scene; but I missed that pensive stillness
which makes the autumn in England indeed the evening
of the year. On the 10th we reached Santiago, where I received
a very kind and hospitable reception from Mr. Caldcleugh.
My excursion only cost me twenty-four days, and
never did I more deeply enjoy an equal space of time. A
few days afterwards I returned to Mr. Corfield's house at
Valparaiso.
[1] Scoresby's Arctic Regions, vol. i. p. 122.
[2] I have heard it remarked in Shropshire that the water, when
the Severn is flooded from long-continued rain, is much more
turbid than when it proceeds from the snow melting in the Welsh
mountains. D'Orbigny (tom. i. p. 184), in explaining the cause
of the various colours of the rivers in South America, remarks
that those with blue or clear water have there source in the
Cordillera, where the snow melts.
[3] Dr. Gillies in Journ. of Nat. and Geograph. Science, Aug.,
1830. This author gives the heights of the Passes.
[4] This structure in frozen snow was long since observed by
Scoresby in the icebergs near Spitzbergen, and, lately, with
more care, by Colonel Jackson (Journ. of Geograph. Soc., vol. v.
p. 12) on the Neva. Mr. Lyell (Principles, vol. iv. p. 360) has
compared the fissures by which the columnar structure seems to
be determined, to the joints that traverse nearly all rocks, but
which are best seen in the non-stratified masses. I may observe,
that in the case of the frozen snow, the columnar structure must
be owing to a "metamorphic" action, and not to a process during
deposition.
[5] This is merely an illustration of the admirable laws, first
laid down by Mr. Lyell, on the geographical distribution of
animals, as influenced by geological changes. The whole
reasoning, of course, is founded on the assumption of the
immutability of species; otherwise the difference in the species
in the two regions might be considered as superinduced during a
length of time.
CHAPTER XVI
NORTHERN CHILE AND PERU
Coast-road to Coquimbo - Great Loads carried by the Miners -
Coquimbo - Earthquake - Step-formed Terrace - Absence of
recent Deposits - Contemporaneousness of the Tertiary
Formations - Excursion up the Valley - Road to Guasco -
Deserts - Valley of Copiapo - Rain and Earthquakes -
Hydrophobia - The Despoblado - Indian Ruins - Probable
Change of Climate - River-bed arched by an Earthquake -
Cold Gales of Wind - Noises from a Hill - Iquique - Salt
Alluvium - Nitrate of Soda - Lima - Unhealthy Country -
Ruins of Callao, overthrown by an Earthquake - Recent
Subsidence - Elevated Shells on San Lorenzo, their
decomposition - Plain with embedded Shells and fragments
of Pottery - Antiquity of the Indian Race.
