"Some See With Two Eyes,
And Some With One, But For My Part I Do Not Think That Chile
Sees With Any."
August 27th.
- After crossing many low hills we descended
into the small land-locked plain of Guitron. In the basins,
such as this one, which are elevated from one thousand to
two thousand feet above the sea, two species of acacia, which
are stunted in their forms, and stand wide apart from each
other, grow in large numbers. These trees are never found
near the sea-coast; and this gives another characteristic
feature to the scenery of these basins. We crossed a low
ridge which separates Guitron from the great plain on which
Santiago stands. The view was here pre-eminently striking:
the dead level surface, covered in parts by woods of acacia,
and with the city in the distance, abutting horizontally
against the base of the Andes, whose snowy peaks were
bright with the evening sun. At the first glance of this
view, it was quite evident that the plain represented the
extent of a former inland sea. As soon as we gained the
level road we pushed our horses into a gallop, and reached
the city before it was dark.
I stayed a week in Santiago, and enjoyed myself very
much. In the morning I rode to various places on the plain,
and in the evening dined with several of the English merchants,
whose hospitality at this place is well known. A
never-failing source of pleasure was to ascend the little
hillock of rock (St. Lucia) which projects in the middle of
the city.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 404 of 776
Words from 108297 to 108565
of 208183
