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Wherever these slaty feldspathic rocks abound, greenstone seems common; at the C. of Quillota a bed of well-crystallised greenstone lay conformably in the midst of the feldspathic slate, with the upper and lower junctions passing insensibly into it.

Its chief rivers are the Longotoma, Ligua, Aconcagua, and Limache; and its territory is among the most populous and most abundant in gold of any in Chili. The capital, called Quillota or San Martin, stands in a pleasant valley, in lat. 32° 42' S. and long. 71° W. having three churches dedicated to the saints Dominic, Francis, and Augustine.

I saw, also, in one or two places the date-palm; it is a most stately tree; and I should think a group of them in their native Asiatic or African deserts must be superb. We passed likewise San Felipe, a pretty straggling town like Quillota.

Valparaiso Excursion to the Foot of the Andes Structure of the Land Ascend the Bell of Quillota Shattered Masses of Greenstone Immense Valleys Mines State of Miners Santiago Hot-baths of Cauquenes Gold-mines Grinding-mills Perforated Stones Habits of the Puma El Turco and Tapacolo Humming-birds. JULY 23rd. The Beagle anchored late at night in the bay of Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chile.

It is said that the sugar-cane grew at Ingenio, lat. 32 to 33 degs., but not in sufficient quantity to make the manufacture profitable. In the valley of Quillota, south of Ingenio, I saw some large date palm trees. Bulkeley's and Cummin's Faithful Narrative of the Loss of the Wager. The earthquake happened August 25, 1741. Agueros, Desc. Hist. de Chiloe, p. 227.

In the more northern parts of Chile, this porphyritic series extends over large tracts of country far from the Cordillera; and even in Central Chile such occasionally occur in outlying positions. I will describe the Campana of Quillota, which stands only fifteen miles from the Pacific, as an instance of one of these outlying masses.

Some feldspathic slate, alternating with strata of claystone porphyry in the Bell of Quillota and at Jajuel, and therefore, perhaps, belonging to a later period than the metamorphic schists on the coast, cleaved in this same direction.

Whoever called "Valparaiso" the "Valley of Paradise," must have been thinking of Quillota. We crossed over to the Hacienda de San Isidro, situated at the very foot of the Bell Mountain.

Accordingly, when Renous returned, he was arrested. We left Yaquil, and followed the flat valley, formed like that of Quillota, in which the Rio Tinderidica flows. Even at these few miles south of Santiago the climate is much damper; in consequence there were fine tracts of pasturage which were not irrigated.

The shattered and baked rocks, traversed by innumerable dykes of greenstone, showed what commotions had formerly taken place. The scenery was much the same as that near the Bell of Quillota dry barren mountains, dotted at intervals by bushes with a scanty foliage. The cactuses, or rather opuntias were here very numerous.