short excursions. One was to examine a great bed of now-existing
shells, elevated 350 feet above the level of the sea: from among these
shells, large forest-trees were growing. Another ride was to P.
Huechucucuy. I had with me a guide who knew the country far too well;
for he would pertinaciously tell me endless Indian names for every
little point, rivulet, and creek. In the same manner as in Tierra del
Fuego, the Indian language appears singularly well adapted for
attaching names to the most trivial features of the land. I believe
every one was glad to say farewell to Chiloe; yet if we could forget
the gloom and ceaseless rain of winter, Chiloe might pass for a
charming island. There is also something very attractive in the
simplicity and humble politeness of the poor inhabitants.
We steered northward along shore, but owing to thick weather did not
reach Valdivia till the night of the 8th. The next morning the boat
proceeded to the town, which is distant about ten miles. We followed
the course of the river, occasionally passing a few hovels, and patches
of ground cleared out of the otherwise unbroken forest; and sometimes
meeting a canoe with an Indian family. The town is situated on the low
banks of the stream, and is so completely buried in a wood of
apple-trees that the streets are merely paths in an orchard. I have
never seen any country, where apple-trees appeared to thrive so well as
in this damp part of South America: on the borders of the roads there
were many young trees evidently self-grown. In Chiloe the inhabitants
possess a marvellously short method of making an orchard. At the lower
part of almost every branch, small, conical, brown, wrinkled points
project: these are always ready to change into roots, as may sometimes
be seen, where any mud has been accidentally splashed against the tree.
A branch as thick as a man's thigh is chosen in the early spring, and
is cut off just beneath a group of these points, all the smaller
branches are lopped off, and it is then placed about two feet deep in
the ground. During the ensuing summer the stump throws out long
shoots, and sometimes even bears fruit: I was shown one which had
produced as many as twenty-three apples, but this was thought very
unusual. In the third season the stump is changed (as I have myself
seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with fruit. An old man near
Valdivia illustrated his motto, "Necesidad es la madre del invencion,"
by giving an account of the several useful things he manufactured from
his apples. After making cider, and likewise wine, he extracted from
the refuse a white and finely flavoured spirit; by another process he
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